Boston Marathon interview

Tim Scapillato interviewed on CBC Radio following completion of 2008 Boston Marathon. Interviewed by Laurie Feagan for In Town and Out program.

http://www.audioo.com/t/cbc-radio-interview/1aa27e958af3042/

FOODS FOR ENERGY

[Source: East Coast Cycos newsletter, in Tri-Rudy newsletter, May 14, 2008]

How to fuel up on the run with the everyday foods in your pantry.

By Clara Silverstein


Energy bars, gels, and sports drinks are so convenient that it's hard to imagine life without them. Specially engineered for endurance athletes, these products deliver the right mix of nutrients in one tidy package. They taste good, too. Pity the poor runners, then, who can't take advantage of these easy energy options because they're plagued by food allergies or a finicky digestive system. (Or the unfortunate runner whose husband eats all the energy bars the night before her long run.) Are such runners doomed to bonk? Hardly. Everyday foods can pick you up when your energy levels are down. Your pantry, or at least the nearest mini-market, is filled with plenty of good options.

The trick to finding suitable alternatives to bars and gels, nutritionists say, is to know what your body needs and to give everything a trial run (or several) before you rely on it to sustain you during a long effort. "The goal is to consume 30 to 60 grams of easily digestible carbohydrates per hour on runs lasting longer than an hour," says Amy Jamieson-Petonic, R.D., manager of the Fairview Hospital Wellness Center in Cleveland. And, of course, those carbs must sit well with you, so be sure to experiment. What works for your running buddy may not work for you.

During her two Boston Marathon runs, Barbara Ruhs, R.D., a nutrition consultant at Harvard University, re-fueled with orange slices, LifeSavers, and Fig Newtons. Ruhs recommends snacks that are as close to whole foods as possible so that you can avoid ingredients such as partially hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, and artificial dyes. Some of her other picks include dried fruit, graham crackers, and granola bars. Crumbly foods like graham crackers can be a challenge. But when packed in individual-serving plastic containers, especially those designed for children's lunch boxes or camping trips, they fit easily into a fanny pack.

Joe Dwyer, one of the owners of the Running Wild specialty store in Coralville, Iowa, gets lots of questions from his customers about fueling up on the run. Energy bars and gels are, of course, his first recommendation. After those, he suggests saltines (especially in hot, humid weather) or small candies, such as Gummi Bears and Sweet Tarts. "They are easy to pack and can be consumed quickly," says Dwyer. Runner Abby Mitchell from Boston pins resealable plastic bags of jellybeans and Gummi Bears to her shorts during her marathons. "They give me a little burst of energy whenever I need it," she says.

Scott Fisher, R.D., a sports nutritionist and director of the Active Training and Nutrition Center in Englewood, New Jersey, agrees that small candies make a good choice for people who can't tolerate solid food, yet still need a quick source of simple carbohydrates. "Sucking on hard candy during a long run or marathon can be a nice alternative to energy gels," Fisher says. Another readily available alternative is honey. "It's a great, fast-acting carbohydrate. Carried in those little condiment packets, honey is easy and effective."

Sports drinks, which rehydrate runners while also delivering carbohydrates and electrolytes, are more easily tolerated and more difficult to substitute. Their formula depends on a specific concentration of carbohydrates, ideally between four and eight percent. "When you go above that percentage with sodas or fruit juice, it can lead to stomach upset," says Jamieson-Petonic.

Fisher recommends experimenting with different brands of sports drinks, and trying small amounts over a long period of time. "Tolerance typically improves with continued use," says Fisher. Or you can try mixing up your own substitute. Ruhs suggests adding one half cup of orange juice (which contains the electrolyte potassium) and a pinch of salt (sodium) to four cups of water.

Before you start stuffing the pockets of your running shorts with snacks, be realistic about your needs. "If you're adequately fueled and hydrated before a short workout, say a three- to four-miler, you shouldn't need anything else during the run," says Fisher. But if you're planning to run for more than an hour, you'll likely perform better with the energy boost from a sports drink or snack.

And if you live with someone who's always eating all the energy bars, just don't tell him where you stash the Fig Newtons and Sweet Tarts.

Bake Your Own Have an oven? That's all you need to enjoy a new kind of energy bar. The San Francisco Bay Area company Matisse & Jack's has introduced a Homemade Energy Bar Mix. Available in two flavors (Cranberry Discovery and Chocolate Amazon), the mixes contain high-quality ingredients such as organic oats, dried fruit, and organic flax seed, and can be prepared in a variety of ways according to your dietary needs--dairy-free, lower sugar, or an energy-cookie variety. Just stir in a couple wet ingredients and bake. We loved the oven-fresh taste. (matisseandjacks.com)

Carb Count

These energizing foods can help you reach the goal of consuming 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour during runs lasting longer than an hour.

Food
Carbs (g)/cals

8 ounces Gatorade
14/50

1 packet GU gel
25/100

1 PowerBar
45/240

4 Fig Newtons
44/220

5 saltines
10/65

4 graham crackers
20/120

1 small plain bagel
30/157

2 tablespoons honey
34/128

1 ounce jelly beans
26/105

1 ounce dried fruit
17/65

3 hard candies
18/72

1 orange, sliced
15/62

1 ounce Gummi Bears
30/120

For peak performance, 3 is not better than 1

[Source: New York Times, May 8, 2008]

by Gina Kolata

WHEN Jenny Higgins started doing triathlons, she discovered something peculiar. She had been on her high school cross country and swim teams and her college swim team. But in 2003 she started running, swimming and cycling, and tried to excel in all three at once.

“I noticed that in the pool, my legs felt very heavy,” she said. “I was dragging my legs more than I used to and it hurt my swimming.”

Other times, she would swim fluidly but feel lifeless when she ran or cycled.

After five years as a multisport athlete, Ms. Higgins, now a 32-year-old postdoctoral research fellow at Princeton University, said the push-me-pull-you feeling has not gone away.

It made Ms. Higgins wonder something that may be on the minds of the nation’s more than 100,000 triathletes, too: Is it even possible to peak in more than one sport at once?

Anne Gordon, 51-year-old triathlete and a partner at Dubilier & Company, a private investment group, has never gotten a personal record in each leg of a triathlon on the same day. “I find it is possible to peak in two out of the three sports, but no matter how hard I try the third eludes me,” she said.

Neither, though, is about to give up triathlons. They love the training, the discipline and competitions that allow a little leeway. For instance, if you are a weak cyclist, you may still do well with a fast run and an adequate swim. Multisport athletes can play on their strengths.

“The simple act of working hard at three things requires a diversity and balance in my life that is rewarding in and of itself,” Ms. Gordon said. “It is good for my spirit to know that I have to work hard and be patient to achieve mastery.”

But the question remains: Can you train optimally for three sports at the same time?

“Even the pros struggle with this, that’s just the nature of the human body,” said Joe Friel, a coach and author of 10 books, including “The Triathlete’s Training Bible” (VeloPress, 2004). “It is hard to get the human body to peak at several activities at the same time.”

Professional triathletes tackle the challenge by training 30 hours a week. With that kind of robust, targeted training, said Mr. Friel, who has a master’s in exercise science, “it’s much easier to improve but it’s still not easy.”

It’s a problem Mr. Friel sees all the time in the athletes he coaches who complain about their times, saying, for example, that they aren’t running as fast as they think they should be.

“I have conversations with them,” he said. “Do you really want to be a triathlete? If you want to run faster you have to give up swimming and cycling.”

That, in fact, is what one professional triathlete did. Desirée Ficker, who is 31 and lives in Austin, Tex., said she decided to concentrate on running when she ran the Austin Marathon in 2007 and came in second with a time of 2:40:28. Not only was that her best marathon time ever but it qualified her for the women’s Olympic Trials in Boston last month. The top three women in that race are on the United States Olympic team.

So Ms. Ficker gave up cycling and swimming and just ran, hoping to make the Olympic team.

“Biking hurts your running performance,” she said. “It tires your legs out, and you are using opposing muscle groups. I actually believe you are tearing up your quads to the point where it hurts when you run.”

When she eased up on bicycling, she said, her legs felt fresher and she ran faster.

At the Olympic trials, Ms. Ficker knew that if she did not make the team she would be racing again as a triathlete. That’s how she makes her living, she said. When it became clear that she was not going to be one of the top three women, she lost her will to run her hardest. “My thought was I’m not going to trash my legs because I have a race in six weeks,” she said.

There’s a reason it’s hard to excel in three sports at once, physiologists say. The training necessary to do your best in one sport is likely to counteract what is needed to be good at another.

When you are training, said Gary S. Krahenbuhl, an exercise physiologist and emeritus professor at Arizona State University, improvement depends on physical and biochemical changes in muscle cells and in nerve-firing patterns. And those changes are very sport-specific, he added. The result, Dr. Krahenbuhl said, is that “changes that facilitate performance for one event may actually undermine performance in another event.”

“To think that you could train in such a way as to have your greatest performance in all the sports is impossible,” he added.

Even body musculature can trip up triathletes. Swimmers need large muscles in their backs and shoulders. Runners and cyclists want small, light upper bodies. Cyclists need large quadriceps muscles. Runners don’t, and in fact they don’t want any extra muscle weight on their legs.

Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky, an exercise researcher at McMaster University in Canada, a physician and a triathlete, is also convinced that training for one sport interferes with training for another.

“There are molecular signals that allow certain types of training,” he said. “They get diluted when you start blending sports together.”

As an extreme example of how specific training can be, Dr. Tarnopolsky tells the story of a man he has raced with in triathlons. The man previously had been a professional cyclist for a European team and told Dr. Tarnopolsky that when he was training for cycling, he could barely run two kilometers.

But these physiologists hasten to add that there are benefits to doing more than one sport. They advocate cross training for all recreational athletes and especially middle-age athletes who are more easily injured and slower to recover than younger people.

Cross training — cycling one day and swimming the next, for example — lets you maintain your energy and enthusiasm and avoid injuries that come from doing the same activity day after day. That’s also part of the appeal of being a triathlete, Mr. Friel said.

“It’s fun to train,” said Kelly Couch, a 30-year-old triathlete from San Mateo, Calif. “Just being a runner, just being a cyclist, can get a little stagnant.”

But training seriously for more than one sport can be hard to coordinate — training for endurance in each, training for speed in each, getting sufficient rest, eating properly for optimal performance. Then, of course, the athlete has to avoid injury, even a minor twinge, that could impede performance in any of the three sports.

“Everything has to come together,” Dr. Tarnopolsky said. “It’s difficult — like getting all the stars to align.”

But even if the stars never align, there can be other perks.

When Ms. Higgins only swam or ran, she would have weeks when every workout discouraged her. That doesn’t happen anymore. “I can always expect to be feeling good in something I’m doing,” she said. “I can feel like a manatee in the pool, really slow. But then my running feels sharp.” As a result, she said, “I can count on several good workouts each week.”

Ms. Gordon works with a coach who is helping her reach the peak of her performance for the start of the triathlon season this month. “May and June are packed with races,” she said. The big one for her is the Philadelphia Triathlon on June 22. “The workouts’ intensity increases dramatically this time of year,” Ms. Gordon said. “As a result, some days I hit all my numbers or swim like a mad woman and even manage a steady if not fantastic run, but then tomorrow comes and I start all over again and I may not be as good at the same things that day.”

But, she said, that is part of what draws her to triathlons.

“What I love best about this sport is the training, the sense that the goal of hitting a perfect 10 for all three sports will take a lifetime.” And that, she added, “is O.K. by me.”

THE BENEFITS OF OILS

[Source: East Coast Cycos newsletter, in Tri-Rudy newsletter, May 7, 2008]

The healthy fats in certain oils are good for your heart--and your running
By Virginia Sole-Smith

As a runner avoiding unhealthy fats, chances are you choose skim milk over whole, use very little butter on your toast, and opt for chicken breast rather than a 12-ounce steak. While those are great choices, hold on before you also skip the oil-and-vinegar on your salad. Remember, not all fats are created equal. If you avoid the kind found in olive, canola, and other plant oils, you may miss out on the very thing you're trying to do: help your heart and health.

Butter, cheese, and ground beef contain mostly saturated fat, which can elevate your LDL, or "bad" cholesterol level, which, in turn, increases your risk of coronary artery disease. Man-made trans fats (also known as partially hydrogenated oils) in processed food have the same effect on your cholesterol as saturated fats. The majority of plant oils, however, are primarily monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, which can lower your LDL, says David Z. Prince, M.D., director of the Cardiac Recovery Program at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. Polyunsaturated fat is a good source of the omega-3 fatty acid known as ALA, found in vegetables. While it isn't as potent as the kind found in fish, it helps improve immune function and--key for runners--reduce joint pain and inflammation.

Besides, your body won't run well on a totally fat-free diet. "We all need some fat each day to absorb fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, which our bodies can't process by themselves," says Tara Gidus, R.D., a sports dietitian and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. Gidus points to new research that suggests lycopene and other antioxidants found in fruits and vegetables are absorbed better when combined with good fats.


Just the Fats

But that doesn't mean you should drown your bread in olive oil. No matter how beneficial the fat, it still comes with a decent number of calories; all oils pack in about 120 per tablespoon, and most contain a gram or two of saturated fat. Steer clear of palm, palm kernel, coconut, and cocoa-butter oils--these are too high in saturated fat to offer real health benefits.

U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommend keeping total fat intake to 20 to 35 percent of your total daily calories. Sports nutritionists suggest runners come in at around 30 percent, which is 78 grams a day for women on a 2,000-calorie diet and 97 grams daily for men on a 2,500-calorie diet. About 80 percent of those fat grams should come from the monounsaturated and polyunsaturated kinds found in plant oils (and other healthy fat sources like nuts and avocados), with the remaining 20 percent coming from saturated fats, reports the American Heart Association.

To keep your intake at a healthy level, "limit added oils to one to two tablespoons per day," says Gidus. Use measuring spoons to control your portions on salads and breads, and use oil in spray cans for cooking, suggests Alex Guarnaschelli, executive chef of Butter Restaurant in New York City. "You'll use far less when you're frying or saut?g than you would if you poured straight from the bottle." And a little extra is all you need to run like a well-oiled machine.

For a list of the healthiest kinds of oils go to the next page

The Healthiest Oils for Runners

Olive Oil
Fat per tablespoon (about 120 calories ): 13 g total
2 g saturated
10 g monounsaturated
1 g polyunsaturated
(.1 g omega-3s)
Tasting Notes: Extra-virgin oil loses its rich flavor when heated, so cook with inexpensive kinds and save the good stuff for drizzling finished dishes. Pairs well with lemon, rosemary, chili, and garlic.

Canola Oil
Fat per tablespoon (about 120 calories ): 13 g total
1 g saturated
8 g monounsaturated
4 g polyunsaturated
(1 g omega-3s)
Tasting Notes: Has a high smoke point (400?F), making it good for stir-frying, roasting, and broiling (to give meat and potatoes a nice brown crisp). "Canola is also a great source of vitamin E," says Gidus.

Oil: Sunflower
Fat per tablespoon (about 120 calories ): 13 g total
2 g saturated
6 g monounsaturated
5 g polyunsaturated
(0 g omega-3s)
Tasting Notes: Choose over safflower oil for baking (anything from muffin to cakes); both have the light flavor you need, but sunflower has more good fat.

Oil: Sesame
Fat per tablespoon (about 120 calories ): 13 g total
2 g saturated
5 g monounsaturated
6 g polyunsaturated
(0 g omega-3s)
Tasting Notes: Cook with dark over light; it has a stronger, almost smoky flavor. Try adding it to dishes just before you serve--grilled asparagus, seared fish fillets, steak, or even roasted sweet potatoes.

Flaxseed Oil
Fat per tablespoon (about 120 calories ): 13 g total
1 g saturated
3 g monounsaturated
9 g polyunsaturated
(7 g omega-3s)
Tasting Notes: Flaxseed has seven times the amount of omega-3 fatty acids as other oils. But high temps destroy the healthy fat, so use it in salads or as seasoning. Store flaxseed oil in your fridge (if it solidifies, run it under warm water for a few minutes).

Oil From Nuts
Fat per tablespoon (about 120 calories ): Walnut, 13 g total
1 g saturated
3 g monounsaturated
9 g polyunsaturated
(1 g omega-3s)

Peanut, 12 g total
2 g saturated
6 g monounsaturated
4 g polyunsaturated
(0 g omega-3s)

Almond, 12 g total
1 g saturated
9 g monounsaturated
2 g polyunsaturated
(0 g omega-3s)
Tasting Notes: Nut oils' rich flavor makes them good for stir-fries and dressings. Mix peanut oil with soy sauce for a classic stir-fry. Pair almond oil with fresh mint or basil leaves and walnut oil with fresh chives or thyme. Drizzle over salads or roasted mushrooms.