Category: Health

Last Sunday, I left my house early in the morning for a long run and it was already warm and humid. I was planning on running 20 miles, but after 19 miles, I decided it was time to wrap it up and walk home for the last mile. Reason was simple: the sun came out from behind the clouds and I left shaded stretches of the bike path. It suddenly got really hot (for me) and I had a flashback to my Disney Marathon, where I ended up feeling sick for a good long while due to heat on the course. So naturally, me being me, I decided to do some research on working out in the heat. After all, we may have some flexibility when it comes to working out, such as leaving earlier in the morning, driving to the beach with a cool breeze or to a much higher elevation (if we live in an area when that’s an option), or opt for an indoor workout. Sadly, that’s not true for the races – we can’t control the weather on the race day and location is what it is. This leaves us with three choices for the races: don’t register for ones in hot places, don’t show up to the race (yeah, right: you already traveled there and paid for the entrance fees!) or figure out how to deal with it.

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According to the Mayo Clinic, there are four stages of heat-related illness: heat cramps, heat syncope and exercise-associated collapse, heat exhaustion and heat stroke. The signs that something is wrong due to heat include muscle cramps, nausea or vomiting, weakness, fatigue, headache, excessive sweating, dizziness or lightheadedness, confusion, irritability, low blood pressure, increased heart rate and visual problems. To be fair, a lot of them are similar to how you feel at the end of a marathon, regardless of the weather 😜. Regardless, you should be paying attention to those symptoms and if you notice them, evaluate the possibility of it being heat-related and treat accordingly.

When it comes to running in the heat, there are three parts to working on avoiding the problems: in the weeks and months before the race, just before the race and during the race itself.

Weeks and months before the race

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In general, if you want to race in hot weather, you need to be ok with hot weather on a regular basis. I find it difficult, as I am ‘northern people’. That’s what I call it: me and all of my ancestors come from Poland and thereabouts, where temperatures don’t really get into 90F. Like ever. 80s are already iffy. AC didn’t exist until relatively recently and even now, unless you custom build your house and specifically get AC, you won’t have it at home. So I am definitely not genetically meant for running in the hot weather and even being outside when it’s how is a challenge for me. I scoured the internet for advice on what to do when I don’t want to run in the heat and the answer was: if you ever plan on racing in the heat, get over it and get used to higher temperatures.

The main takeaway was that one should maintain their acclimatization to heat year-round. One way to do it is to use the sauna regularly. From what I have read, going to he sauna after a workout is particularly beneficial for running on hotter days when the season changes. A Polish runner I follow on Instagram, Dominika Stelmach, recommended also going on vacation to a hot place in the middle of the winter. I have mixed feelings on that, since I don’t have too much PTO (I live in America…) and I love skiing, so in the winter, I want to hit the slopes, not the beach… But: it is an advice from a pro, so I am quoting it. It probably does help.

Start training in warmer weather, preferably up to the weather conditions expected for the race. So if you know that it’s going to be around 80F on the race day, try to do some long runs in the 80F weather. I know: it’s not always possible (see my Disney Marathon in January – it was ski season where I live!). If you can’t go outside to get that kind of conditions, see if you can simulate them indoors. Example: crank up the heat next to your treadmill/stationary bike. If all else fails, you can also wear more clothes than necessary, creating your own warmth ‘situation’. It’s not ideal, but it will do if you have no other options.

When the weather in your town gets hot, don’t avoid it in the training if it mirrors your anticipated race conditions. However, if it is too hot and sunny, try running in the morning or evening and find a shaded path. No reason to suffer if you don’t need to! However, putting in the effort on the hot days will give you gains in endurance, even if you think that you were ‘so slow’. It takes a lot more effort to run in the heat and gains come from effort, not necessarily the speed.

Just before the race

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If you can, get there a couple of days early, preferably two weeks ahead of time (who, not being a pro or a retiree, has time for that???), so you can acclimate. There is an advantage to living in those hot conditions on a day-to-day basis, but two weeks of getting used to the weather really helps. Actually, every day you can get helps. And try not to make your first run in the heat be the race. You know: basically, don’t be me in Florida. My research says that I did pretty much everything wrong in preparation for the race. Not that I could have helped all of it: the day was a weather fluke and I did come from a wintry place. But I digress…

Another thing to do to prepare: make sure you get enough electrolytes in you. I happen to sweat a lot and I tend to sweat out a lot of salt (I am sure everybody wanted to know that 🤢), so I need to make sure to drink enough, including plenty of ports drinks. And skip the alcohol – it dehydrates… Since we are talking about planning ahead, make sure to keep that in mind for the couple of days before the race.

Clothes: pick something light and light-colored, so it protects you from the sun. Remember that dark colors keep the heat! Loose clothing is preferable, but I don’t think it’s much of an option during a triathlon, since you have to swim in it. Unless you put the shirt on when you get out of water? Yeah, that would probably work. I tend to run with a bandanna on my head and I know a few people who like hats. Wrong! Choose a visor. It keeps the sun off your face (that’s important!), while not trapping heat on your head. I will keep that in mind. Although I tend to soak my bandannas, so maybe that helps? But it sure explained why I see Ironman visors, but not hats.

Please use sunscreen (something I am notoriously bad at). Long story short: sunburns make it harder for your body to get rid of heat. Obviously, there is more science behind it, but I am not into the details right now… All I care about is how to avoid overheating.

This last piece of advice came as a bit of surprise to me. You know how we are always told to warm up properly? Apparently before a race, you should cool yourself down as much as you can. Your core will keep getting hotter as you run (or bike), but your starting point will be much lower. I saw three ways talked about: ice vest (I am pretty sure that costs money – so only if you think it’s worth it and you race in heat often enough to justify the expense), put wet towel on your neck (I can probably do this… or maybe like a paper towel? 😉) or drink/eat something really cold. So like an ice pop or frozen sports drink. I think I can manage that last one the best. That’s easy.

During the race

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Congrats! You made it to the starting line (and you are probably questioning your sanity if it’s already hot and you are sweating before even starting to run)! Now you need to survive all the miles in the race. First piece of advice: run/ride slower. I even found somewhere conversion program for how much to slow down. For training, it’s the effort that counts, so you are still going to make gains. Focus on the effort, not the pace. During the race, you may not end up with time you hoped, but isn’t it better to finish rather than hurting yourself? I would say so. I was once looking up a marathon in Hawaii and my main takeaway from the website was ‘this is not a place to PR! Make sure you don’t hurt yourself!’

The other important thing is to keep replenishing water and electrolytes you are losing. Different people lose those at different rate (I happen to sweat a lot and lose a lot of salt while doing it, but it may not be the case for you). The more often you can do it, the better. It’s preferable to drink small amounts more frequently than getting larger drinks less often. If your stomach feels full, listen to it, too – it is possible to overhydrate (although that’s a whole another subject and possible future post).

And here is the solution most of us thinks of: squirt some water on yourself. Advice from a friend (learned the hard way by him): before you pour water you grabbed at a water station on the course, make sure it’s not a sport drink 😜. Also, wet towels or sponges work. When they get hot, you can always shake them out and let them cool down a bit. Speaking from personal experience: pouring cold water on your back feels amazing!

So you did overheat. Now what?

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Once you are done with your workout/race in hot weather, you need to make sure that your core temperature gets back down. If you are feeling sick, seek medical attention. At the races, it’s easy to go over to a medic and have them take a look at you. It may be a good idea, just in case. If you are seriously dehydrated, they can give you IV fluids. Not only will that re-hydrate you, it will drop your core temperature. I think that anybody who ever had an IV can recall that you start feeling really cold. That’s because IV fluids have lower temperature than your body.

I hope you are not doing so badly that you need medical attention and can take care of it yourself. But if you are not feeling well, you should have somebody hang out with you. Overheating compromises your cognitive abilities, so you may not be the best judge of your own well-being.

First of all: beer is not a good idea! Alcohol dehydrates! However, water and sport drinks are great. Especially if they are cold. Eating ice cream, slushies or just pieces of ice will help you cool down as well.

And leaving best for last: cold shower or bath! Let’s face it, if you were just doing some heavy physical activity in the heat, you need to wash off anyway 😉

Stay cool and take care of your body this summer!

Since I already covered the most common type of pain for cyclists (lower back), it’s only fair to discuss problem pretty much every runner has to deal with sooner or later: knee pain. I suffer from it on occasion, especially after particularly long runs. Based on what I have read, other than acute injuries (like spraining your knee) and illnesses (like arthritis), there are four main sources of knee pain. Disclaimer: if your joints are swollen, things are not healing or if you are really concerned, go see a doctor.

Strained calf muscle

I’m definitely starting with the easiest one… Pain in the back of your knee is most likely to be caused by strained calf muscle. I guess that could actually count as an acute injury… This one is just full of good news: just let your leg rest, some ice and if you want to get fancy, deep tissue massage will help.

Patellar tendon strain

Patellar tendon is the one that connects your knee cap to your shinbone. You will usually feel it as you push off during running and the pain exacerbates on hills. You can solve the problem in the short term by using straps below your knee or through patellar taping. Ice and rest are always a runner’s go-to and it may grant you relief. However, over time, the problem may increase to the point that every attempt at running hurts. Figuring out the problem and finding a long term solution is better. Overpronation and weak gluteal or medial quad muscles contribute to the problem. First thing you should look at are your running shoes. Speaking from experience: if you are not tracking mileage on your shoes, you may find out that they are worn out and don’t provide you with sufficient support by developing pain in your knees. Also, not having shoes that correct for your overpronation can lead to pain in your knees. Fortunately, that’s an easy fix and all it takes is either a trip to a store or online order. The other issue takes longer to resolve. You may need to focus on your glutes and quads at the gym (yes, don’t skip your legs at the gym!). Stretching quads and hamstrings will also help avoid developing strain in you patellar tendon.

Illotibial band syndrome

Isn’t that a fancy name? It has to do with inflammation of the illotibial band or bursa (fluid sack in your knee) getting squeezed by the illotibial band (I wonder how many times I have to write ‘illotibial’ before I remember the word?). It tends to get worse the more you run/ the further you go and on hills. There are some temporary fixes, like icing your knee or straps and taping. However, as per usual, that won’t really fix the problem, just kick the can down the road. Oh, another piece of advice I just ‘loved’: avoid running on hills. Well, outside of a treadmill and track, I am not sure how you’d achieve that. So the first step in truly addressing the problem is making sure you have good/proper running shoes. The next one is in case one of your legs is shorter than the other (I assume they are referring to more significant amount, since most of us have some small difference in leg length), put lifts in your shoe on your shorter leg. Have you already guessed what the real solution is for vast majority of us? You are right: hit the gym and work on your leg strength. You should focus on your glutes and core muscle to help with this.

Patellofemoral pain syndrome

This is what most of us think when we say runner’s knee. Runner’s knee is pain under the knee cap. It gets worse after running and when walking up and down the stairs (remember that after some of your long runs?). It happens when the patella (fancy name for the knee cap) moves out of alignment, causing irritation to the cartilage. You usually get here when your mechanics during the run are off. For immediate relief, anti inflammatory meds and ice will help. You can reduce mileage and cross-train during the recovery. But the truth is that at the end of the day, you need to do something about your mechanics. From what I have learned from Diana (my personal goddess of sports), the reason why you develop this problem during your long runs is because your step becomes off as your muscle tires. It happened to me in the worst possible way during my Philly marathon due to my hip problem – I was subconsciously adjusting my stride to take pressure off my left hip, creating awkward stride and putting stress on my left knee. Yes, it hurt. A lot. Have you guessed already what the fix to this problem is? Yes, you guessed it! Strength training for your legs. Gluteus medius and quads to be precise. And don’t forget to stretch your hips and hamstrings!

When doing my research and even more so while writing this post, I was just seeing the recurring theme: make sure you have good shoes and hit the gym. At the gym, it’s easy to get an impression that many people skip the leg days (chicken legs anybody?) because they either only care about the appearance of their upper body or they think that their legs are taken care of because they run/bike enough. Clearly, working on strong legs is essential to avoiding knee problems. I am adding exercises for avoiding knee pain to my list of workout videos I need to create!

Since I have mentioned that cyclists should stretch in the article about back pain while riding, I think it’s time to talk about stretching for runners. It’s been a highly contentious subject, but I got a sense from the internet that YES is currently the official answer, although there are some ‘buts’ to it.

Let’s start with the only article I have found that started with a NO. It was from ABC News and started with a story of a lady who used to stretch before running and get injured frequently. As I kept reading along, I realized that it actually echoes information I have read elsewhere, just coming from the negative side.

The point that all sides converge at is that there are different types of stretches and whether they are a good idea is when you do them. The first type of stretching is static. That’s the one where you stretch out a muscle and hold a position. There are dynamic stretches, where you repeat the movements without holding. Some of us (at the risk of dating myself) have been told in the past that dynamic stretching is bad and can cause tears in your muscle. This has been disproved since, provided that you don’t do them so hard that you are causing yourself pain (to be fair: whatever you are doing, if you are causing actual pain, you are probably doing too much/going too hard).

In all the articles I have read, they have discouraged doing static stretching before running. And that’s where ABC News story was coming from – person who was doing static stretches before running. Further research into the subject told me that the biggest problem coming from static stretching before running came from decreased performance. Explanations included tiring out muscle; inhibiting nerve contraction, which leads to lower speed; and worse run economy. Further studies have shown that the decreased running economy impacted only untrained runners, but isn’t majority of us here amateurs? Having already said all these bad things about static stretching, I feel a need to mention that it’s not all bad. It’s just not for before going for a run. In the long run, it will help with your range of motion and some common aches and pains. Also: I dare you not to do any stretching after a marathon. Actually, please don’t. It’s a figure of speech. Have you seen people wobbling around bent in not-so-natural poses after long runs? Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. Static stretching is meant to alleviate those problem.

Dynamic stretching, on the other hand, is exactly what you need before heading out for a run. One of the benefits is that it gets your blood going, so you can start at a higher level than if you were to start immediately. It improves your range of motion and increase your performance and power. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I have read now to do high knees and butt kicks before heading out for a run!

Conclusion: you need to stretch. You just need to choose the right stretches for the right time. Videos on the subject coming soon!

Do you get pain in your lower back while riding? I sure do! It doesn’t get that bad when I bike at home, with my bike on the indoor trainer. I am just now getting back to biking outside, since the weather is getting better. Sadly, that’s not great for my back. I recalled that I have seen in the past that complaints about lower back pain are not so uncommon among cyclists. So I decided to dig around and find out what to do.

I have found out that there are two groups of reasons, let’s call them mechanical and fitness. Mechanical are bike fit and posture while riding. Fitness are your core strength and stretching. Let’s take each of them apart and discuss solutions.

Mechanical issues

Bike fit

Apparently this one is responsible for the vast majority of problems. Depending on your budget and how serious you were when buying your bike, you may have bought your bike from a professional store or from a big box store. Sadly, most of us are very price-conscious and it will lead to problems. So here are some key point for the bike fit:

• You need to have some clearance over the frame, that’s a given. I tried borrowing a bike before where I didn’t really have much (any?) space over the frame and let me tell you: watching me get on and off that bike was really funny (for people who weren’t me). But this one is obvious
• The other part of size of the frame: how far you have to reach out to the handlebars. If they are too far, reaching out will create strain on your back
• Height of your seat: your knees should be at 15-20 degree angle when your leg is most extended while peddling

Posture

This one can be caused by general bad posture, bad habits or physical limitations. Let’s start from the front of the bike: your arms when you are holding onto the handlebars. They should be slightly bent. If for no other reason, you need to be able to absorb shock (and there will be shocks) and those tend to be vicious on locked elbows. Locking your elbows is a no-no in pretty much every sport (I can’t think of any exceptions actually) and makes you prone to all sorts of injuries. Next would be back and shoulders – keep them straight. Slouching and hunching over can create strain on your bike. If you think about it, slouching also causes your chest cavity to get a bit smaller, compressing your lungs and making it hard to take a deep breath in. When you are performing physical activity, it’s generally advisable to be able to breathe 😉. Last, but not least: legs. At the top, your legs should be at a 90 degree angle and not be fully extended at the bottom. If that’s not the case, check your bike fitting.

Another posture issue is sitting straight and using both sides evenly. It sounds easy, right? Then starts by considering the fact that pretty much all of us have legs of different lengths. It’s probably not the world’s best known fact. We usually don’t realize it because the differences tend to be minimal and shouldn’t cause issues, but the differences may be larger and in that case, you need professional help to make adjustments. How about old injuries? Since I have an old hip injury, I can speak to this one from personal experience. They may lead to moving somewhat differently or large muscle strength disparities. Probably the best solution to this issue is to train both sides evenly and consult a doctor or a physical therapist if necessary.

Fitness

Core strength

This goes for both lower back and stomach muscle. Lower back pain while cycling for an extended period of time may be caused by muscle fatigue. Fortunately, there is an easy, albeit time-consuming, fix for lack of core strength: exercise! You will need, in particular, to focus on inner-most muscles, which attach to your spine, around L5 in particular. Easy example or exercise working those parts is the much-hated plank. I am currently working on some workout videos showing which exercises will help this particular issue.

Stretching

Many cyclists are very tight in their hips, which can cause muscle to pull on the back. During a longer ride, that will create a back strain. In order to avoid this issue, you should regularly stretch your hip flexors and quads. Like with core strength, I will be working on a video showing proper stretches. Heads-up: I am not uber-stretched. I have neglected it for years and now I am working on fixing it. So don’t worry, you won’t be assaulted by a super-limber gymnast who makes you feel inadequate. But isn’t this what this blog is all about: a weekend warrior with very average abilities and totally every-day problems?

Bonus: using too heavy gears. This one I am totally guilty of. I am not very good at moving fast. I can, however, produce a lot of power, especially with my legs, for extended periods of time. Without proper guidance, I developed an unhealthy coping mechanism: I shift into a very heavy gear, which allows me to achieve higher speeds with fewer rotations of the peddles. Apparently that’s how you strain your lower back. Moral of the story for me: I need to work on peddling faster rather than harder. I am pretty sure I have all the other issues under control.

Starting with advice: if you are hurting, ask a professional for help.

High mileage I put on my body definitely increases chances that I will hurt myself and I am not 18 anymore, so things happen. I already talked about my hip, so I will leave that one alone. But that’s not the only thing that has gone wrong with my body.

All the pounding the pavement, weight lifting, swimming and biking (and let’s admit it: biking for extended periods of time causes back pain) has caused my back to get tight and my neck started to feel tight. I told Diana about it and she decided to deal with that. I am not a fan of massages (I had one in my life and I have no particular desire to repeat that experience) and chiropractors always freaked me out. So here I was: on the gym floor, face down with Diana on my back trying to pop my back. Yeah… that definitely got me to tighten up. It was a battle of her repeating ‘relax’ and me doing the opposite. It even led to this brilliant conversation when my arms went up again as she pushed on my back:

Diana: You are like a dead bug!

Me: Thank you?

She also found a huge knot in my shoulder. I can complain all I want about not enjoying this particular torture, but it helped. I may not be able to completely shut down my instinctual reactions, but I do trust Diana she is helping. She is yet to disappoint. So far, she has fixed pretty much every issue I came to her with.

Another injury: my foot started hurting just before the Philly marathon. I was definitely worried. I started to notice that I put my foot down wrong while walking in softer shoes. I finally went to see a doctor the other day. They took half a dozen of x-rays of my foot and poked it a bit. Credit to the podiatrist: my feet are ridiculously ticklish, yet once I told him that, he managed not to tickle me again, despite holding my foot, examining it and pointing out what was going wrong. Diagnosis: I have an extra bone in my foot and I tweaked it while running. It can be easily fixed with ortho insert in my shoes and I need to use proper stability running shoes. As far as injuries go, that’s a simple fix. Not even a need to take time off my feet! I did get to go to some official meetings in my hiking boots though 😆

I am sure I will tweak something again in the future… Hopefully, it will make for a good story! In the meantime, my body is healing up and I should be ready for Disney World Marathon in a little over 4 weeks!