Don’t buy a shoe just because your friend thinks it’s awesome In some ways choosing a trail shoe is no different to choosing a road running shoe. Comfort is key. Taking you back to your childhood (those of you as old as I am) to quote Different Strokes, what might be right for you may not be right for some. We all have different opinions on what makes a shoe comfortable so first tip is don’t buy a certain trail shoe just because your friend thinks it’s awesome. What sort of sole do you have? A trail running shoe will have a more rugged outsole than its road running cousin and is typically more durable. Depending on where you run will impact on what sort of sole you choose. A hybrid trail shoe is perfect if you want a shoe that is as happy on the road as it is on a non-technical trail. These shoes tend to have a lower profile outsole and are often a trail version of shoe companies’ popular road shoe. The Brooks Adrenaline ASR is a good example of a hybrid shoe. A sticky rubber outsole is great for trail running that includes boulders and rocks (Magnetic Island) and the Mizuno Daichi with its Michellin Mountain Bike inspired outsole rocks it on the boulders! Aggressive, deep lugs on the outsole are ideal for loose gravel and muddy conditions. The Salomon Speedcross has an extremely aggressive “toothy” outsole with 6mm lugs that are perfect when the trails get super technical and sketchy. How’s your fit? The fit of your trail shoe is super important. You want it snug enough around the heel and arch to avoid slippage. This will prevent blistering and give stability when on uneven surfaces. You also want a thumb width between the end of your toes and the end of the shoe – this will help stop those blood blister / bruised toenails that can be caused when hammering down a gnarly trail Less chance of injuries Not so much a tip, more a fact. A trail shoe will offer more stability and protection on off road tracks than road shoe. There is also some good evidence to suggest that alternating between two pairs of shoe (in this case a trail and road shoes) reduces your risk of a running related injury. One of the major causes of repetitive overuse injury in runners is running on the same surface ie footpath, in the same shoe, every single run. As the researchers put it, ‘the concomitant use of different pairs of running shoes will provide alternation in the running pattern and vary external and active forces on the lower legs during running activity.’ They found that those runners who use two pairs of shoes were 61% less likely to have a running related injury than those runners who used the same she for every run. The Salmon Speedcross, Brooks Adrenaline ASR and Mizuno Daichi are all available at The Athletes Foot
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It sure is a touchy subject ( so to speak) but ladies we really need to talk about saddle soreness and specifically what’s normal and what’s not. Research through the years has mainly focused on male cyclists with only a few studies on women. But saddle soreness for women can lead to all sorts of troubles with pain and discomfort in the genital region. Being uncomfortable on the saddle could also be the underlying cause of a cascade of other cycling problems from lower back pain, poor pedalling efficiency , hand numbness, foot numbness, shoulder pain and an overall desire to stop riding because it just hurts too much!! So I thought I would do a quick post and answer the 4 most common questions I get asked about having a saddle soreness for women after riding from a sports medicine point of view. Language warning people …. we are going to be talking about "girly bits" And before you start laughing too much guys - next week it’s your turn when we talk about “nuggets of truth” for men and their saddle issues! Isn’t it normal to have saddle soreness and numbness after riding? Whilst it is common (studies suggest that between 62 and 80% of women cyclist have saddle numbness) it certainly is not good and is not acceptable. Numbness occurs due to compression of the “nervus dorsalis clitoridis” on the saddle: Latin for nerve getting squished resulting in decreased clitoris sensation and genital numbness. You should be able to ride without saddle numbness and you should never have trouble urinating after riding, regardless of distance, speed or time on the bike. No exceptions. EVER! And if you can’t then there is something wrong with you bike set up. But it doesn’t stay numb very long after I stop riding – so that’s ok isn’t it? Well that depends on your definition of “long”. Chronic traumatisms, calcification of the clitoris and degeneration of clitorial structure have been noted in women who have been riding for more than 2 years. Truth is a once off “numbness episode” is probably not a problem. BUT if you continually squish your clitoris’s nerve on the saddle – and it is constantly going numb - over time you can end up with a condition called “Anorgasmia”. “An” from the Greek meaning without and “orgasmia” – well you can probably work out what that means ; ) Ok, ok – so I admit there is a problem. My friend has bought a “ ( insert name of saddle here)” saddle that has worked for her, should I just go buy that one? There are so many different saddle choices nowadays - it is not unusual for me to see someone who has tried 10 or more different saddles to try and to find the perfect fit and yet still have a genital numbness. And every woman is built differently down there – some peoples labia minora are more major than minor if you know what I mean….so don’t assume your friend is the same as you! Contrary to popular opinion, scientific studies have shown that cut out saddles are great for men with bike related erectile dysfunction issues on a road bike, terrible for blokes on a mountain bike and can actually increase pressure on a woman’s labia and clitoris leading to sexual dysfunction for the woman! Wider saddles may not be the answer for every woman with one study has suggesting that wider saddles can be a cause of dysuria and stranguria (pain and trouble urinating) in women and another study has suggested that cut out saddles cause swelling of the vulva when compared with traditional saddles for women. So what should I do then? Pressure mapping of the saddle can help work out where and what saddle you should be riding. It is a fool proof way of deciding what is good and what is not so good. If you don’t have access to that then opt for a safe bet and at least a "ladies" saddle Changing handlebar height might offer the most immediate source of relief. Handlebars placed above the lowers saddle pressure and protects against reduced genital sensation as compared with riding with hands in a low position. Because women have a lower centre of gravity than men it means we can’t transfer our weight onto our hands as effectively. This equals more pressure on our girly bits than our hands. The way to circumvent this is to get your handlebars up! Unfortunately, riding in a more upright position does mean you won't be quite as aerodynamic but when choosing between aerodynamics and comfort I know which one I would go for! Happy riding! Daina It’s getting hot! Thanks for the News Flash I hear you say...
How much effect do you think heat and humidity has on your performance? Decreases it by 5%? Maybe 10%? What about if I told you it is closer to 20%? Jeepers!!! And … The heavier you are the harder it gets. Research is pretty clear, the hotter the air temperature is; the tougher it is to keep training at high intensities. Heart rate elevates quicker, oxygen requirements go up and your times get slower! If you normally run 5 minutes per km in 10°C (who would run in such cold?? Eek!) it will take 5:56min to run that same km in 29°C. Your perceived effort will be the same as the temperature rises but you just won’t be running as quick. The research looked at a "hot day" of 29 degree - imagine what happens when the temperature sores to over 35 degrees?? You will be seriously affected and perhaps should think twice about completing your training. Lesson is: Be kind to yourself in the heat, don't push too hard and accept those slower times!! Iliotibial band syndrome (ITBS) is the most common injury of the outside of the knee in runners and it is also the major cause of lateral knee pain in bike riders. In the good old days, the way we treated it was to jump on a foam roller and inflict as much pain as possible to ourselves as we tried to “stretch” the ITB and roll out the ‘adhesions’ in the tissue. The thing is that as you self-inflicted some major pain with the roller; your knee pain often didn’t get any better. Here are some common questions about the ITB Can you stretch your ITB? The simple answer is no! The ITB is an incredibly dense fibrous band of tissue and has a firm attachment to the entire length of the femur which means any potential lengthening is physiologically impossible. Research has shown that in fact it can only change length by about 2mm or less than 0.2% of it's overall length. No amount of stretching will change it's length. Should I roll my ITB? Probably not. The last thing we want to do to a tissue that is painful because of a compression issue is to compress it further by rolling on it with our body weight. Early research into ITBS suggested that it was a frictional condition that caused inflammation where the ITB attaches to the lateral femoral condyle (think outside bone of the knee) but recently this theory has been challenged with suggestion that ITBS is more likely caused by excessive compression of the layer of fat between the ITB and the bone. So if the ITB can't stretch and hates compression, best to avoid the foam roller What about taking anti-inflammatories? As we said - new research challenges whether inflammation of the ITB is actually occurring when it's sore. So anti-inflammatories are probably not going to be the answer. What about using a foam roller on other muscles? There is good evidence that foam rolling 1. Helps mobility by improving the range of motion of the joints 2. Makes us feel good by reducing fatigue after exercise 3. But it probably doesn't increase power or strength of muscles. What should I do then if my ITB is sore? Best bet is to focus your attention on the muscles at your hip - Gluteus Maximus and the Tensor Fascia Lata (TFL) which may be the cause of your pain. The TFL inserts directly into the ITB with the ITB behaving as an elongated tendon of the TFL. Also, a substantial portion of the Gluteus Maximus inserts onto the ITB too. Addressing any tightness or weakness in these muscles could have more of an effect on your knee pain than anything else. Soft tissue therapy, massage or dry needling the myofascial trigger points of these two muscles are good options. Seek out your allied health professional to expertly diagnose and treat the issue and save yourself the pain of the roll. This may come as a shock but Mountain Biking is very different to Road Cycling. I know! Who knew? The tyres are different…. The helmets and gloves are different….. The skin tight lycra outfit is ditched for more relaxed, baggy clothing… The riding surface has way more dirt Plus the dangers of riding in the traffic have been replaced with the dangers of rocks, steep descents and fitting those awesome, super wide handlebars between the not so awesome, super narrow tree gaps But probably the main difference is the physiological demands of Mountain Biking are very different to road riding. Mountain biking ( MTB) is fun but it is hard. Obviously to do well on a mountain bike you a need certain level of skill ( that’s why you come to one of our skills clinics!) You also need a high aerobic capacity, similar to road riding, but anaerobic power (those gut busting efforts between 30 seconds and 3 minutes) plays a more significant role in performance on a MTB compared to on the road. Research has shown that 80% of a MTB race time is spent above lactate threshold and the average heart rate during a race is 90% of max. We are talking a seriously epic suffer score on Strava! The higher intensity of MTB compared to Road comes down to
The first four points are easily understood but what about isometric contractions? An isometric contraction is when your muscle is producing force without a change of joint angle or muscle length. “Showing your biceps” is an example of an isometric contraction. As you brace with your arms and legs when riding the MTB, these isometric contractions increase energy expenditure and increases heart rate response at sub maximal efforts. This is why your heart rate will remain high even when descending a gnarley trail compared to how quickly your heart rate recovers when rolling down a hill on your roadie. Due to this need for isometric muscle action there is potentially a greater positive effect of upper and lower body strength training on performance for the MTBer compared to our roadie friends (we will cover strength training for MTBers in another article - stay tuned) Some recent research compared the effects of sprint and high intensity aerobic interval training on Mountain bike performance. What they found was intervals of 4 mins with sprinting the last 30 seconds of the interval was slightly better than doing intervals of 30 seconds sprinting followed by 4 minutes of rest – which intuitively makes sense. But they concluded that both high intensity and sprint training may be effective at increasing MTB race performance and other physiological variables. So what does this all mean for your MTB specific training? Ditch the some of those distance rides and focus in on those race winning, high intensity efforts. Start by incorporating short sharp intervals twice a week into your training schedule on non-consecutive days and add a slightly longer threshold session into the mix on the weekend. A MTB specific training week might look something like this: Tuesday – after a 10 minute warm up, complete 5 x 3 minutes hard efforts with 3 minutes recovery between intervals. You should be feeling the pinch at the end of effort. Push yourself to really nail those 3 minutes. Thursday – after a 10 minute warm up, 8 x 30 seconds sprint, flat out, as fast and hard as you can go with a 4.5 minute recovery between efforts Saturday – after a 10 minute warm up complete 2 x 8 minutes, solid effort really pushing in the last 30 seconds. 5 minute of easy pedalling recover between intervals. Smart, specific MTB training - that’s what needed. Focus in on the efforts that really count. You will see rapid improvements in your fitness and will ensure you get the most bang for your training buck to be smoking it on the trails. Daina Clark Achilles Tendon troubles are a common problem for runners. Sometimes it can be tricky knowing what you should do to get back and running again without pain. With acknowledgment to Jill Cook who is the world guru on tendon pathology here is a list of what not to do. Overload the tendon Pain is telling you that whatever you’ve been doing is too much. Tendons can be tricky though – often there is a 24-hour delay before they tell you that you’ve done too much. It’s not until the next morning that you know you’re in real trouble. D’oh just when you were feeling so good too! When the Achilles acts like a spring, (think hopping, jumping, sprinting) it is under its highest load and most likely to complain the following day. Running is basically hopping from foot to foot and explains why your Achilles might flare up the day after a run. Exercising with weights in a slow, controlled fashion is what you are after. We need to get that Achilles able to tolerate load before it can act like a spring again. Rest the tendon Here I am telling you not to overload the tendon and now I am telling you not to rest the tendon. Jeepers! What are you supposed to do?? Well just as too much load is no good for the tendon, complete rest is equally problematic. The Goldilocks principle comes into play, you need reduce the stress to a level that the tendon can tolerate and then aim to increase the tolerance of the tendon to take load. Use it or lose it but don’t overdo it. Massage the Tendon Massaging the tendon itself hurts, so normally that’s enough reason not to do it but also massage aggravates the tendon and can slow down the healing process. Massage the calf instead is a better plan. Stretch: If your Achilles Tendon is painful - do not stretch it! One thing tendons hate is compression. If you do the standard standing calf stretch, or worse still, the stretch where you drop your heel off the back of a step and really sink the heel down you are compressing the living daylights out of your Achilles. Ouch! And it will slow down your recovery. Much better to massage the calf muscle if it is feeling tight or do some mobility work, just don’t massage the tendon!! Take Short Cuts There are no short cuts to getting your Achilles back on track. ( think injections, doing your strength work for a few days and thinking you’re done) It can take 3 months or more to increase the capacity of the Achilles, but if you do the work the outcomes are good. Of course if you are in any doubt about what to do – get it checked out by a health professional. |
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