I used to see my finishing kick as a sign of toughness. Nobody passed me in the closing stages of a race, I’d tell myself, because nobody wanted it more than me.
But as time went on, I began to see it from a different perspective. No matter how a race played out, whether it was fast or slow and whether I was way ahead or way behind, I would always manage to sprint the last quarter-mile or so. Why did I always have energy left for a sprint, even if I’d been dropped by the leaders? Shouldn’t I have used that energy to avoid being dropped in the first place? Eventually, my kick became a source of frustration. I tried to race hard enough that I’d have nothing left for a kick, but I almost never managed it.
The trickiest part of strength training, for most endurance athletes, is getting started. There are plenty of good reasons to do it, both for health and for performance. But there’s an important wrinkle that doesn’t get much attention: when should you
stop?
The practice of tapering a short-term reduction of training before an important competition is common practice. A big review of tapering studies back in 2007 concluded that the best approach is a two-week period during which you gradually reduce training volume by 40 to 60 percent without altering the frequency or intensity of your workouts. More recently, researchers have suggested that a “mental taper,” avoiding stressful or mentally fatiguing activities before a big race, could be useful. But how and when do you taper your strength training routine?
Stryd, the company that pioneered the idea of power meters for running, recently published a scientific white paper called “Running Power Definition and Utility.” That might seem like an odd topic for a company that’s been selling power meters since 2015. You’d figure they must know by now what running power is and why it’s useful.
But these questions are far knottier than you might think, and Stryd has always been fairly forthright about admitting this. In
Outside’s initial coverage of their launch, one co-founder said their fundamental challenge was “lack of knowledge,” and hoped initial users would help the company figure out what its product was good for. In the years since then, Stryd has gotten excellent word-of-mouth. The users I’ve spoken to have found it helpful. But there’s been a nagging disconnect between the positive user reviews and the general consensus of scientists who actually study running, which is that “running power” is a fundamentally
The world’s parcel delivery services are slammed beyond capacity, but it’s not too late to give the gift of knowledge this holiday season. Just call up a local bookstore near your giftee’s address and have them put aside a copy of one of the books below. Or better yet, order a few for yourself. This winter, more than any other, is the right time to curl up on the sofa next to a big stack of books and stay the heck inside (other than during your daily workout or adventure, of course).
The list rules: these are books I liked this year. Some are old, others are new, and a few are still to come. They generally align with the themes of the Sweat Science column science, endurance, fitness, adventure but sometimes the connection is pretty slender. For more ideas, check out the fall book list I put together back in September.