Monday, November 25, 2019
Thursday, November 21, 2019
Recent Study Shows Running Helps You Live Longer
By Mandy Oaklander Time Magazine
November
7, 2019
One major reason Americans don’t get
enough exercise is they feel they don’t have enough time. It can be difficult
to squeeze in the 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise per week that federal
guidelines recommend; only about half of Americans do, according to the most
recent numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But new
research suggests people may be able to get life-lengthening benefits by
running for far less time.
In a new analysis of 14 studies, researchers tracked deaths among more than 232,000 people from the U.S., Denmark, the U.K. and China over at least five years, and compared the findings with people’s self-reports about how much they ran. People who said they ran any amount were less likely to die during the follow-up than those who didn’t run at all. Runners were 27% less likely to die for any reason, compared with nonrunners, and had a 30% and 23% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and cancer, respectively. This was true even for those who didn’t log a great deal of time. The analysis grouped people into clusters, with 50 minutes or less per week representing the group that ran the least—but still ran.
In a new analysis of 14 studies, researchers tracked deaths among more than 232,000 people from the U.S., Denmark, the U.K. and China over at least five years, and compared the findings with people’s self-reports about how much they ran. People who said they ran any amount were less likely to die during the follow-up than those who didn’t run at all. Runners were 27% less likely to die for any reason, compared with nonrunners, and had a 30% and 23% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and cancer, respectively. This was true even for those who didn’t log a great deal of time. The analysis grouped people into clusters, with 50 minutes or less per week representing the group that ran the least—but still ran.
“Regardless of how much you run, you can
expect such benefits,” says Zeljko Pedisic, associate professor at the
Institute for Health and Sport at Victoria University in Australia, and one of
the authors of the new analysis published in the British Journal of Sports
Medicine.
The analysis is the latest to
illustrate the benefits of
running on the human body. “It’s what we evolved to do,” says Daniel
Lieberman, a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University (who
was not involved in the new research). People may no longer chase down prey for
their next meal, but running is still helping us survive: as leisure-time
exercise, it keeps us healthy. “One of the best ways to avoid having to see a
doctor,” Lieberman says, “is to stay physically active."
The physical demands of running
“affect just about every system of the body” in a beneficial way, Lieberman
says. Take the cardiovascular system. Running forces it to adapt by “generating
more capacity,” he says. “You grow more capillaries and small arteries, and
that helps lower your blood pressure.” (High blood pressure is a major cause of
health problems and death.) Running is good at guarding against cancer partly
because it uses up blood sugar, starving the cancer cells that rely on it for
fuel. And it protects you in other ways not necessarily measured in the latest
research: by decreasing inflammation, for example, which is at the root of many
diseases, and stimulating the production of a protein that improves brain
health, Lieberman says. “Vigorous physical activity has been shown to be by
far—with no close second—the best way to prevent Alzheimer’s,” he notes.
The good news for people who want the
maximum longevity
benefits—while spending the least amount of time slapping one foot
in front of the other—is that running more than 50 minutes per week wasn’t
linked to additional protections against dying. Neither were how often people
ran and the pace they kept. As long as you’re running, more isn’t always
better, especially given that the risk of injury increases with repetition.
But both Pedisic and Lieberman advise
people not to cling too tightly to that number. “We found no significant
trends, but it’s not evidence of no trend,” Pedisic says. “To be able to infer
something like that, you would need the whole population measured.” (Important,
too, is that the results showed a correlation, not causation.)
Of course, people run for life-giving
reasons, not just death-defying ones. “Mortality is an important variable to
think about, but there’s also illness, and happiness, and vitality,” Lieberman
says. “Some people are running in order to stave off Alzheimer’s, and other
people to prevent heart disease, and other people because it makes them feel
better and others for depression.” No piece of research—including the
latest—can define a truly optimal number after which all health perks wane. But
one finding is clear: anything greater than zero m.p.h. is where you’ll reap
the biggest benefits.
Write to Mandy Oaklander at mandy.oaklander@time.com.
This appears in the November 18, 2019
issue of TIME.
The more goal-oriented you are, the more likely you are to exercise
Written by Danielle Zickl
Runners World October 24, 2019
Runners World October 24, 2019
According to a new study, the more
goal-oriented you are, the more likely you are to exercise.
Setting goals and making concrete plans to achieve them can help boost your performance and race results.
Our personality
traits dictate who we are in aspects of our life—from how you do your job to
how you interact with your friends and family. So it’s no surprise that our
personality traits carry over into our running life, too. Setting goals and making concrete plans to achieve them can help boost your performance and race results.
According to new research out of the University of Oregon, the more goal oriented you are, the more likely you are to engage in physical activity.
In the study, published in the
journal Psychological Science, researchers first asked 282 participants
to fill out a survey that included four personality scales—the Planfulness
Scale, the Brief Self-Control Scale, the Big Five Inventory-2, and the Grit
Scale. Participants answered each question on a scale of 1 to 5—1 being that
the participants strongly disagreed with the statement and 5 being that the
participants strongly agreed with the statement.
Questions included
things like: “Developing a clear plan when I have a goal is important to me,”
“I am good at resisting temptation,” “Is systematic, likes to keep things in
order,” and “I finish whatever I begin.”
Next, participants
had to answer a free-response question about what their exercise goals were and
how they might plan to achieve them.
Participants had
access to the University of Oregon’s rec center and researchers monitored how
often they swiped their ID card to exercise there within the span of 20 weeks
(two college semesters).
Here’s what they
found: While everyone who participated in the study went to the gym more in the
beginning of the semester than they did at the end, those who gave themselves
high scores on the Planfulness Scale—for instance, “developing a clear plan
when I have a goal is important to me”—went to the gym more during both
semesters than those who gave themselves low scores on the Planfulness Scale.
Specifically, for
every one point someone scored themselves on the Planfulness Scale, they went
to the gym 5.9 more times during the fall semester and 8.5 more times during
the winter semester.
The more planful
people are, the more likely they are to follow through on their goals,
according to lead study author Rita Ludwig, Ph.D.(c), of the University of
Oregon’s department of psychology.
“Being planful
includes things like setting concrete steps to reach a goal, being willing to
make sacrifices now for future rewards, and using the goal as motivation to
overcome obstacles to success,” she said. “It may be that seeing how your
everyday actions contribute to your long-term goal is the key to making
progress and ultimately achievement.”
According to
Ludwig, runners who exhibit "planfulness" in their everyday lives might stick to
their training plans more and see
better race results. “Participants in our study included people who were trying to improve their running performance or prepare for upcoming marathons. Regardless of the specific goal, planful athletes more frequently went to the gym to make progress towards it,” she said.
Below, Ludwig
offers a few tips on how to best execute planfulness in your daily life:
- Set a specific goal.
- Maintain focus on your goal.
- Be mindful about how your everyday
actions can either help or hinder your progress.
“Taking the time
to intentionally plan may be beneficial for athletes who want to achieve a
certain level of performance,” she said. “Long-term goal pursuit is, after all,
a marathon— not a sprint.”
Tuesday, October 8, 2019
Nun running Chicago Marathon hoping to raise $200K to renovate Our Lady of the Angels School building
OCT 08, 2019
Sister Stephanie Baliga no longer runs for herself, but for her community and for God. So she was undeterred as the predawn thunderstorm rolled in.
The thunder roared, the sky flashed a bright blue and the obliquely falling rain whipped across her glasses. But she didn’t flinch. She only smiled.
“Why wouldn’t I smile?” she asked. Running gives her time to meditate, an opportunity to clear her mind and talk to God.
It’s a form of prayer, she said.
Sister Stephanie Baliga, a former long-distance runner at the University of Illinois, gives instruction to clients waiting outside of a food pantry at Mission of Our Lady of the Angels in Chicago on Oct. 1, 2019. Baliga started a running team for the Archdiocese of Chicago to raise money for the mission. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Sister Stephanie Baliga hands out numbered tickets to clients waiting outside of a food pantry at Mission of Our Lady of the Angels in Chicago on Oct. 1, 2019. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
A sanctuary in a violent neighborhood
From running to serving: Sister Stephanie Baliga moves produce and products to be stocked prior to clients arriving at a food pantry at Mission of Our Lady of the Angels in Chicago on Oct. 1, 2019. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
That’s why she doesn’t listen to music when she runs outside. This early Sunday morning, the falling rain and her thoughts were her soundtrack.
And just before 5 a.m., with an American flag bandanna tied around her head and an Illinois track and field jacket shielding her from the rain, she took off running through the Chicago streets.
Each practice run is precious as she prepares to lead the Mission of Our Lady of the Angels charity team in the Chicago Marathon. Baliga is the organizer and co-founder of the team, which has run in the Chicago Marathon since 2011 to raise money for the mission and raise awareness of its community work.
This year her team is running to raise money to complete the renovations for the three-story school building adjacent to the church. The team, which includes more than 100 runners from across the country, is hoping to raise more than $200,000, Baliga said.
Six decades ago, a tragic fire swept through the parish’s Catholic school and killed 92 children and three nuns. Today, the mission uses the building that replaced that one to provide social services to the community, including a weekly food pantry, free community meals, after-school programming and emergency assistance.
“Jesus asked us to be able to help our neighbor and treat others the way we want to be treated,” Baliga said. “And we believe that’s what we’re doing here in West Humboldt Park, being able to bring the hope of Christ through the love of Christ to a neighborhood that’s in much despair and difficulty and incredibly difficult circumstances.”
There have been at least 24 homicides in the Humboldt Park community area so far this year, more than any other area except the adjoining Austin community area, according to Chicago police data.
“We’re trying to bring the presence of Jesus to this neighborhood that needs a lot of hope, and a lot of love,” Baliga said.
One recent Saturday morning, dozens of neighborhood residents filled the wooden pews of the church sanctuary. Every week the mission holds a prayer service followed by a community lunch.
Baliga led the service this morning, with peace as the focus.
Dressed in her religious habit, she read Scripture to the crowd before posing a question.
“When you hear the word ‘peace,’ what do you think of?” Baliga asked.
“I think of no gun violence and no killings,” a young girl answered.
“I think of love,” Kelly Longstreet, 51, chimed in.
Longstreet, who said he’s lived in the neighborhood for more than 30 years, said the value of the mission goes beyond the services it provides. Amid the chaos, it’s a place where people can find “peace and tranquility” and not worry about anything, he said.
“Look what you’re surrounded by,” Longstreet said as he gestured to the saints etched into the blue stained-glass windows.
“Angels.”
The cosmic shift in Baliga’s life started with an identity crisis.
As a University of Illinois distance runner, she measured her self-importance on her running and academic achievements.
But when she broke her foot sophomore year, she was forced to reevaluate who she was.
“I started to contemplate my life,” she said. “Who am I? What am I doing? My main identity could not be running anymore.”
During her sophomore year on a spiritual retreat, she had an awakening.
It took Baliga a few years to figure out exactly what God was asking her to do, she said. But soon after graduating college in 2010, she joined the Franciscans of the Eucharist of Chicago at the Mission of Our Lady of the Angels.
And through the Catholic Church, Baliga discovered the answer to the one question she had been searching for.
“I learned my identity is a daughter of God, and I’m loved by God," Baliga said. "And as I discovered that, I found that God was calling me to dedicate my life to the church, and I discerned that was by becoming a sister.”
Now, Baliga has merged her passion for running with her love of God to serve her community.
When the fatigue inevitably kicks in, and the finish line beckons during the 26-mile run Oct. 13, she’ll draw inspiration from within.
“All of the work that we’re doing is for the greater glory of God, so when we’re running, and it starts to hurt, we’ll make that last charge to not slow down for the mission and for Jesus.”
Chicago Tribune: https://www.chicagotribune.com/
Chigcago Marathon:https://www.chicagomarathon.com/
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Too Much Training Can Tax Athletes Brains
September 26, 2019
Too much physical exertion appears to make the brain tired.
Researchers found that after several weeks of overtraining, athletes became more likely to choose immediate gratification over long-term rewards. At the same time, brain scans showed the athletes had decreased activity in an area of the brain involved in decision-making.
The finding could explain why some elite athletes see their performance decline when they work out too much — a phenomenon is known as overtraining syndrome.
The distance runner Alberto Salazar, for example, experienced a mysterious decline after winning the New York Marathon three times and the Boston Marathon once in the early 1980s. Salazar's times fell off even though he was still in his mid-20s and training more than ever.
"Probably [it was] something linked to his brain and his cognitive capacities," says Bastien Blain, an author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow at University College London. (Salazar didn't respond to an interview request for this story.)
Blain was part of a team that studied 37 male triathletes who volunteered to take part in a special training program. "They were strongly motivated to be part of this program, at least at the beginning," Blain says.
Half of the triathletes were instructed to continue their usual workouts. The rest were told to increase their weekly training by 40%.
The result was a training program so intense that these athletes began to perform worse on tests of maximal output.
After three weeks, all the participants were put in a brain scanner and asked a series of questions designed to reveal whether a person is more inclined to choose immediate gratification or a long-term reward. "For example, we ask, 'Do you prefer $10 now or $60 in six months,' " Blain says.
The answers showed a clear difference in overtrained athletes. "Those people were, in fact, choosing more immediate gratification than the other group of athletes," Blain says.
The scanner also revealed a difference. There was less activity in "a very little brain area, a little spot of the left prefrontal cortex that's impacted during decision-making," Blain says.
When there's lots of activity in that area, athletes are able to ignore signals from screaming muscles and focus on winning, Blain says. But when an athlete trains too hard, a sort of brain fatigue sets in and the activity level remains low and the person has less ability to push their body, he says.
Other research teams also have found evidence that physical exertion can affect both decision-making and brain activity.
"We find that people as they have repeatedly exerted effort over time, they tend to be less willing to continue exerting effort for rewards," says Tanja Mueller, a graduate student at the University of Oxford who wasn't involved in the study of triathletes.
But the brain may not be simply choosing between long-term goals vs. immediate gratification, Mueller says. The calculus may be more about cost and benefit.
Research by Mueller and Matthew Apps suggests that when the body becomes physically depleted, the brain begins to experience "motivational fatigue," which affects decision-making. When that happens, the brain "may not consider it worth it anymore to wait for higher rewards."
The brain appears to be constantly reassessing the value of a goal, says Todd Braver, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.
"So your brain is doing these kinds of cost-benefit trade-offs all the time," he says. "Is it still worth the effort? Is it still worth the effort?"
And the answer to that question may change as the body's level of fatigue increases. "The brain might have this kind of built-in mechanism to say, 'Hey, it's time to shift from this goal to another one,' " he says.
For an athlete, Braver says, that could mean abandoning the goal of winning a race and embracing a goal that will let them recover.
NPR Website: https://www.npr.org
Thursday, September 5, 2019
Climate Crisis Could Make Outside Sports More Dangerous
By Jen Christensen, CNN
"About this time every year, there are news reports about student athletes who collapse during practice while getting ready for a big game. Heat illness can lead to death and injury among athletes, and a new report examines why the risk could be rising.
The past four years have been the warmest in the United States since record keeping began in 1895.
The National Weather Service's heat index measures how hot it feels when you factor in relative humidity with the actual air temperature. It can feel even hotter if you are in the sun on these days. The heat index is calculated for shady locations with a slight breeze, the report said, which means it can actually feel 15 degrees Fahrenheit warmer.
The South and Southwest see these high heat index days throughout the summer. Parts of the country where it's rare to see such highs are seeing more such days too.
 |
| Source: Los Alamitos Race on the Base |
In a number of Southern cities, extreme heat days reach far beyond summer months. Miami had 160.6 days extreme heat days on average over the last five years, for example.
Your body doesn't handle these extremely hot and humid days well, because sweat -- your natural cooling mechanism -- doesn't evaporate when it's really humid and you can't cool down as well. It can also be hard to breathe.
For both conditions, "danger" days and "heat index" days, it can be dangerous to exercise outside and can lead to heat exhaustion and heat stroke.
A number of sporting events around the world have had to cancel due to high temperatures, including the New York Triathlon in July. Last year, for the first time in the US Open's history, an extreme heat policy was implemented to help male tennis players cope with temperatures around 100 degrees Fahrenheit in New York.
Standards vary on when practices or games are canceled and not every school or professional team has the proper equipment to measure the true heat/humidity conditions on a practice field, according to the report.
Since 1995, 64 football players alone have died from heat stroke and 90% of them died during practice, an earlier study showed. The rate of football heat stroke deaths fell in recent years, a decline researchers said supported continued efforts to train coaches, players and others about practicing in heat and hydrating properly.
The new report's authors encourage coaches to follow the National Athletic Trainers' Association recommendations to limit players' risk of practicing in the heat, including keeping fluids on hand at all times, encouraging rest breaks and watching for signs of heat-related illness."
Note: It may be time for cross-country officials to begin taking wet bulb temperatures at meet sites when it is very hot and humid. If wet bulb conditions indicate it is unsafe officials should consider the possibility of postponing meets until conditions are safer much as they do when there is lightning at a race site.
Scholastic meets should also probably consider for the first time, providing water on the course for athletes.
Note: It may be time for cross-country officials to begin taking wet bulb temperatures at meet sites when it is very hot and humid. If wet bulb conditions indicate it is unsafe officials should consider the possibility of postponing meets until conditions are safer much as they do when there is lightning at a race site.
Scholastic meets should also probably consider for the first time, providing water on the course for athletes.
For more information on about preventing heat illness in athletes: https://nfhslearn.com/courses/34000/heat-illness-prevention
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Gloucester Catholic Junior Senior High School Cross-Country Video 2018
Gloucester Catholic Junior Senior High School Cross-Country Video 2018
Monday, July 22, 2019
New Running Book "Positive Splits" Available
"Positive Splits" a new running book consisting of positive running stories is now available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.com.
The new book features positive running and training articles, as well as interesting profiles on positive runners from the 1700's until today.The running legends profiled include Olympians Browning Ross, Ted Corbitt, Oscar Moore, Larry James and Erin Donohue, as well as inspirational every day runners.
"Positive Splits" also features positive long distance training advice from some of the USA's greatest running coaches, as well as humor and homespun wisdom that will reward any runner or sports fan.
Here is the Amazon link to "Positive Splits":
https://www.amazon.com/Positive-Splits-Postive-Running-Stories/dp/1548655341/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=positive+splits&qid=1563839504&s=gateway&sr=8-1
Friday, May 3, 2019
Phillies, Rhys Hoskins Sponsor Movie Night for Good Sportsmanship to Support Youth Athletics
Did you know:
- Student-Athletes are four times more likely to attend college than non-athletes.
- Physically active kids have up to 40% higher test scores than non-athletes.
- Student-Athletes are absent 50% less than non-athletes.
- Student-Athletes have an 11% higher graduation rate than non-athletes.
Despite these statistics, funding for student athletic programs has been declining across the country. School sports budgets were cut 3.5 billion dollars from 2009 to 2011, and 50% of children stop playing sports by the time they reach adolescence. If the trend continues it is estimated that 27% of American public schools will drop sports programs by 2020.
The Phillies in conjunction with Dick's Sporting Goods sponsored their first-ever "Movie Night" in the Diamond Club to highlight the value of youth sports.
Phillies Movie Night Speakers highlighting the importance of youth participation in school athletic programs included Phillies first baseman Rhys Hoskins, Phillies Announcer Scott Franzke, Dick's Sporting Goods Vice President Matthew Irvin, (who is leading Dick's Sporting Goods Foundation "Why Sports Matter" campaign) and coaches Ed Dunn and Michelle Grace from Martin Luther King High School in Philadelphia, PA.
The "Why Sports Matter" campaign has pledged more than $50 million for youth sports so far.
The movie shown was the highly acclaimed "We Could Be King," Filmmaker Judd Erlich's film about Martin Luther King High and Germantown High Schools first football season after their merger.
 |
| Phillies First Baseman Rhys Hoskins |
 |
| Rhys Hoskins |
 |
| Phillies Broadcaster Scott Franzke |
 |
| Why youth sports matter panel including Martin Luther King High Football Coach Ed Dunn, Filmmaker Judd Erlich, Dick Sporting Goods VP Matthew Irvin, Rhys Hoskins, and Assistant Coach Michelle Grace (also below). |
 |
| Coach Dunn, Erlich and Irvine answer questions on the importance of supporting youth sports. |
For more information on the Dicks Sporting Goods "Why Sports Matter" Program:
https://www.sportsmatter.org/learnmore.html
We Could Be King film information: https://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2014/08/30/we-could-be-king-film
Pictures of the event by the kind courtesy of Jim and Diana Briggs.
St. Josephs Cross-Country Team Lets The Dogs Out For Great Practices
Going Beyond
by Monica Lester
Published in All Creatures Magazine (Guidepost) May June 2019
“Approximately 3.3 million dogs enter the animal shelter
system in the United States every year, according to the ASPCA. These animals
face uncertain futures, but one thing is for sure. They need love and exercise.
That’s where the
cross-country team of St. Josephs High School in Orcutt, California, steps- or
runs- in. Since 2016, the team has helped Santa Barbara County Animal Services
provide exercise, socialization, and love to their shelter dogs by taking them
running.
Luis Escobar, then the teams' coach, and Stacy Silva, the
community outreach coordinator for Animal Services, came up with the idea
during the 2016 practice season. The school is a mile-and-a-half run down the
street from the shelter, and the student-athletes were always on the move. It
seemed like an ideal way to keep the dogs fit and give students the opportunity
to learn about vulnerable animals in their community.
 |
| St. Joe Cross-Country team with canine training partners |
“It’s a perfect relationship,” Escobar says. “The students are
running outside, and these dogs can benefit from being with them, moving and
breathing fresh air.”
Silva says that the runs are not only joyful for the animals
but clearly a bonding experience for the team as well. It’s also been a great
way to build awareness about the available animals in the shelter, which takes
care of about 6,000 dogs each year.
“We do everything we can to give these dogs a good life
while they’re in the shelter, but it is not a home,” Silva says. “So anytime
the community can help us meet the mental and physical needs of our animals
it’s a win-win.”
The cross-country
teams first run with the pups was a resounding success, due in part to a video
Escobar posted on Facebook that quickly went viral. Escobar was invited to meet
renowned dog trainee Cesar Millan and the kids on the team got to be part of
filmmaker Steven Latham’s documentary Shelter Me, about people who help shelter
animals.
“I believe the story
was so popular because it’s simply a genuine gesture of kindness,” Escobar says.
“It wasn’t contrived, and it resonated.”
There was a moment
during that first run that Escobar will never forget. One of the athletes
finished behind the rest of the pack because he was carrying an 18-month-old
terrier mix named Fred, who had no interest in running—or walking, for that
matter. “Seeing Fred’s face as he was being carried down the street was very
sweet,” “He was so appreciative that he was being loved. And that’s what this
is all about.” Luckily for Fred, that student’s family adopted him.
Today, students can
log volunteer hours for school by running with the dogs, according to Tom Mott,
St. Joseph’s dean of athletics. And the shelter has built on the foundation
that the cross-country team established by expanding its volunteer
opportunities to include Miles for Mutts, a program that encourages community
members to run with the dogs in the shelter. “When animals can get a little
extra love,” Mott says, it can go a long way.”
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