By admin on February 2, 2012
Sports massage has always been part of my injury prevention and recovery strategy – and now a new study, from McMaster University in Canada, suggests that the benefits aren’t just psychological.
In the study, cyclists rode to exhaustion and then had one leg massaged while the other was left alone. Biopsies were taken from the quadriceps muscles in both legs prior to cycling, immediately after the massage and 2.5 hours later. When the samples were analysed, there was less inflammation in the massaged leg as well as greater biogenesis of mitochondria (the energy-producing units in muscle cells), suggesting better recovery from and adaptation to vigorous exercise.
Posted in News | Tagged injury prevention, latest updates, recovery, sports massage
By admin on February 1, 2012
Rate of perceived exertion – or RPE – is a way of assessing how hard you are working without monitoring physiological variables, like heart rate, or external variables like speed or pace. It simply reflects how hard you feel you are working. Research has already shown that RPE is remarkably effective – it was a study from the University of Exeter that found people’s perception of effort during exercise was closely matched by their actual effort, measured in the laboratory.
But I came across an interesting study today (not new) which suggests that RPE is somewhat transient… fragile even. Researchers from the University of Southampton got runners to run at 75 per cent of their maximum on a treadmill in three different trials, and monitored their mood (known as ‘affect’ in psychological research) and RPE during each.
In the first trial, they were told to run for 20 mins – and did so. In the second trial, they were told to run for 10 mins – but when the 10 mins were almost up they were told to run a further 10 mins. And in the final trial, they were not told how long they would be running for (but it turned out to be 20 mins).
In the second trial, when the runners thought they were about to stop but were asked to carry on, mood (understandably!) took a bit of a dip. But RPE increased, despite the fact that the speed remained constant at all times throughout all trials. In other words, the runners rated their effort as ‘harder’ because of the unexpected extra mileage. This led the researchers to suggest that RPE is not purely a measure of physical exertion, but has an affective component, too. It reminded me of the 10-mile race I ran last weekend – a fellow participant asked me about the hills and I told him ‘there’s one at 4 miles and another at 7 miles but the rest is fairly flat.’ He came and found me, someway between 5 and 6 and said in an accusatory tone ‘you didn’t tell me about this one…’ Oops. I bet his RPE was sky high…
So what does this all mean? I think it means that your state of mind can have a big impact on performance, and that having someone – or something – else in control of your performance is disempowering and likely to make you feel that you are working harder than if you knew exactly what lay ahead. I’ll keep that in mind in my coaching in future - and my mid-race banter…
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged coaching, latest updates, RPE, running, training
By admin on February 1, 2012
If you are training for a spring marathon, my Master the Marathon workshop, taking place on Sunday February 12th 2012 at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre will help you make the best use of your precious training time and avoid injury, so your race-day performance is the best it can be. The full day workshop is ideal for first-timers or marathoners who want to improve their time. For more details of what the day entails, see the Coaching & Workshops page.
Posted in News | Tagged coaching, injury prevention, latest updates, marathon, running, Sam Murphy, training
By admin on January 20, 2012
The first running book I wrote, Run for Life, was aimed specifically at female runners. I’d been running for more than a decade and felt I’d had to learn my trade ’on the job’ (often through bitter experience!) rather than being able to avoid mistakes and maximise my performance by heeding other people’s advice and experience. So I wrote my own guide, and it sold more than 200,000 copies worldwide. That was back in 2003 – and things have changed a lot in the running world since then, in terms of training advice, nutrition, injury prevention, footwear and running form. So much so that last year, I set to work on a completely new book, Real Women Run, which is due to be published in March (Kyle Books £14.99). I’m really excited about it and pleased to report that my trusty fox terrier Sidney has made it onto the cover this time!
Posted in News | Tagged latest updates, running, Sam Murphy, sidney, women's running
