• Skip to main content
RunCharlotte

RunCharlotte

RunCharlotte

  • About
  • Marathon
  • RunCharlotte Events
  • Results
  • Media
  • Ambassadors
  • Partners

admin

Best Diet Ever

September 2, 2021 by admin

You can’t browse your social media without hearing about a new diet everyone is trying, and if you’re a certain age… that “unwanted belly fat” ad is constantly dancing across your screen. Who hasn’t been tempted to click?

Let’s face it, some of us run to compete in marathons, and some of us run for “some exercise/ to keep fit/ to lose a couple of pounds.” If you’re one of the latter, don’t fall for the latest/greatest/sure-fire thing to help you lose that last 10 (or even the first 10), says registered dietician Matt Dengler of RxRD Nutrition.

He hears about these 10-day, 30-day, 60-day diets all the time, because it’s his business to help you continue to reach your health and nutrition goals AFTER you’ve gone on — and off — those diets. He posted a handy chart from scientist Asker Jeukendrup at mysportscience.com to show you how they work. See what they have in common?

“I don’t like that word diet,” says Dengler. “Not where you don’t eat your favorite foods.”

Okay, we’re listening….

“I don’t care what you call it, there’s nothing magical about any of those,” he says about the alphabet of diets like keto, paleo, low fat/ low calorie/ low carb, and all the rest. “The question is, ‘Can you do it? Does it fit your lifestyle for a period of time?’”

The problem with diets that ask you to do something for a predetermined amount of days — which we all agree look very doable in that short time frame — is that those days come to an end, says Dengler. And then what?

“You always have your eyes on your endpoint,” he continues. “The problem is, you’re so relieved that on day 91, 61, or 31, you’re going to go crazy on whatever you were missing.” Oh yeah — pizza, beer, wings, cake? Yes!

“You’ll feel really bad, and then you’ll go back to what you were doing before because you’re thinking about how bad your diet was,” he tells us. “It’s not a lifestyle plan. Even if they’re successful early on, they can’t keep up. They’re so restrictive, they’re not built for longevity.” And that’s why they’re referred to as “yo-yo” diets.

For instance, “keto” is about putting your body into a state of ketosis to burn fat for energy, which actually isn’t healthy, says Dengler. It’s for when you’re on a desert island hoping to live long enough to get rescued.

“Your body does not like ketosis,” he says. “It’s not a good place to be. It was never meant to be a weight loss thing.”

How about low carb? You know — you get to eat all of those yummy fats but cut out the sugars and starches that add calories. Nope, says Dengler. “Eating fats for a long period of time is bad for our heart.” Don’t sacrifice your arteries for a few pounds or you could hurt your ticker.

And what about cutting out all those fats? Difference scenario, same answer: “Are they eliminating an entire macronutrient? Huge red flag! It’s a bad diet,” he says. Yes, even if your favorite athlete is doing it. You’re not Tom Brady or Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and you don’t have their team of experts guiding you.

And no, don’t think you’re going to “jump-start” a weight loss or healthy lifestyle by doing a named, calorie-restricting diet, says Dengler. If you want to jump-start a healthier lifestyle, just do it! Keeping with the running analogies, healthy eating, and weight control are a marathon, not a sprint.

Let’s start with what you’re eating. Your plate will look different if you’re a run-to-keep-pounds-off runner versus a serious marathon competitor or triathlete.

If you’re the former, your plate needs to look like the U.S. Government’s “Choose My Plate” option:

Half of your plate should be fruits and vegetables, one-fourth should be carbs, and one-fourth should be protein, says Dengler. We know this, right? But sometimes we have to wrap our heads around it in a different way to make it work for us.

“We tend to make the entree (the protein) the star of the show, and the other foods are the side dishes,” he relates. “But fruits and veggies should be the star of the show, with carbs and proteins as side dishes.” Ahhhhhhh…. That works! Think of your diet as plant-based for starters — but that doesn’t mean you don’t eat meat, says Dengler. It just means you eat more plants. And yes, you can still have a sweet treat or a beer. Just remember to include it in your overall meal plan so you can cut back another carb or sweet.

This way of looking at our daily food consumption should work for anyone doing less than two hours of training a day, he says. If you are a professional athlete or a seriously competitive amateur who trains more than two hours a day, flip your plate. Dengler says to eat more grains and carbs — up to half of your plate. That will give you the fuel you need to keep your energy level where it needs to be.

For the rest of us, rearrange your plate and your thinking, and learn how to measure your success in ways other than stepping on a scale.

“Weight is a gravitational pull to the earth, but says nothing about body composition,” he notes, so don’t rely on your scale to tell you everything you need to know. In fact, you may not want to look at it at all!

“The scale is one piece of the puzzle, but it’s the most discouraging piece. It’s never going fast enough,” he says. “You’re always going to be unhappy — even if you reach your goal!” So let’s look at other ways to measure your success.

“How are you doing? How do you feel? How is sleep? How do your clothes fit? How are your workouts?” he asks. These are real measures of success. Start with a piece of clothing you want to look great in, and keep trying it on until it fits the way you want it to. Keep a food journal. Take before, during, and after pictures. If you can, track your muscle mass and body fat percentage. Those are the results you want.

Sit down and write out your goals. Consider your lifestyle. Make a plan to do what’s doable on a consistent basis, for life. THAT’s the diet you should be on, says Dengler.

“If you can stay consistent,” he says, “that’s the best diet.”

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Stuff We Hate About Running in Charlotte

August 26, 2021 by admin


Running is just great! It makes us feel good, gives us joy, and provides us an escape – if only for a few miles – from all of the other stuff that’s going on around us. Yep. Running really is great. Until it’s not. 

Sometimes we just don’t want to get out there. Heck, sometimes we don’t even want to get out of the bed when it’s this hot and gross out there, much less go to the trouble of getting dressed and sunscreened, filling water bottles, picking a route, etc., etc. Then there’s the laundry and shoes… first world problems, for sure, but still. It’s enough to fuel this starter list of stuff we just hate about running in Charlotte.

Run Clubs and Brewery Runs

How can we possibly be in two, three, or more places at one time? And there seems to be a run from a Charlotte area brewery nearly every day of the week—even Sundays! Clearly, “I don’t have anyone to run with,” is no longer an excuse. Thanks for ruining that for us, run clubs. 

Running Specialty Shops 

Amazon Prime next day shipping at least buys us an extra day of not running, but dang it—of course, there’s a local specialty running shop probably on the way to or from wherever we’re going today that’ll be just more than happy to help us find the right shoe for the kind of running we prefer. Why do they have to be so damned helpful and convenient? 

Races, Fun Runs, and Events 

Look, our dance card is pretty full these days. We’ve got people to see and places to go. And chores. We’ve got those, too. Almost forgot about those. At least these weekend races might get us out of some of this yardwork. It’ll be leaf season around here soon enough. If we plan it right, we could skip out on every Saturday morning chore list. Most of these runs benefit some nonprofit, right? OK, cool. We don’t feel as guilty leaving the rest of the family with rakes in hands.

Roads, Trails, and Greenways 

Really, how are we supposed to choose “where” to go run around here? Checking these Strava heat maps leaves us with some serious analysis paralysis here, people. Might be shopping for the old “Magic 8 Ball” as a new addition to the training tool box. Looking at you, specialty running shops. 

All These Runners 

Whatever happened to the “loneliness of the long distance runner,” anyway? No matter how early or late a start we get, no matter the location, there’s always someone else out here. And nearly every one of them wants to wave or say, “hi” or “looking good.” Honestly, do we look that bad out there? We can handle it…  

Honestly, who asked for all of these friendly, positive runners hanging around?  Can’t we get any solitude? 

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Power Up Your Warm Up

August 19, 2021 by admin

When it’s time to fit in your run, you want to get OUT there.  Our time is limited, so who has more for a warm-up? 

We hear you. Not to mention that when it’s 157 degrees outside in summer in Charlotte — the term “warm up” can seem downright silly.  The warm up is important though, for a lot of reasons. 

As Dr. Doug Bradberry of Greenapple Sports notes, “A good warmup is important for both injury prevention and your body’s ability to train well. It is time well spent.”  

Our muscles get “cold” and tight when we don’t use them for a period of time. Think about taffy…if it’s ice cold and you tweak it, it’s more likely to snap than if it’s all warm and flexible. You want to be the flexible taffy. 

By doing a warm up, our heart rate is gradually increased as opposed to going from average to Zone 5 in a matter of 5 seconds.  No one likes to feel as if their heart may explode.

So what should you do? “Anything that elevates your heart rate will warm the body and be beneficial, but a good warmup will focus on the movement patterns that you need for the workout”, says Bradberry.  “You want to get the joints moving in the direction you need and get blood to the muscles that you are going to use. With running, we want to get the legs moving forwards and backwards.”

Our friend Phil Sanford, who is an RRCA running coach, agrees. “Starting cold could open your body up to injury if you start the run with a burst of speed and energy. A warm-up could be as simple as a jog for a few minutes followed by dynamic stretching. The three dynamic stretches that I recommend to all runners before a run are high knees, butt kicks, and skips.”  These don’t take a lot of time and have proven to be very effective at waking up the body.

“After sitting at a desk all day, your muscles fall asleep! Your muscles need to be reminded that it is time to fire so activation exercises are important before any run,” says Kelly Fillnow, coach at Fillnow Coaching and tri-athlete extraordinaire. 

“Our go to activation exercises include standing fire hydrants with a band, lateral walks with a band, and the Running Man. All of these exercises will help to target the sleepy glutes and will get your body prepared to run.”

In the absence of all time and if you simply can’t fit in a set of dedicated warm-up exercises, you should at least start your run at a substantially slower pace than your usual for about a mile. 

Make the time for a few minutes of warming up, yes even when it’s the dead of summer, and your body will be happier.  

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Freed Feet: One Guy’s Story of Shedding His Shoes

August 12, 2021 by admin

The idea of taking a long, leisurely run without something on your feet doesn’t, at first, sound appealing to a lot of runners — especially those who are protective of this very valuable asset. We know that barefoot running and minimalist shoes had their heyday about a decade ago, after which some runners dismissed it as a fad, and others say it really changed their lives.

We’re here to tell you…. the research is far from absolute about whether running without shoes will change your life, or prevent injuries, etc. But if you talk to runners who have done it, and still do it, they will gladly tell you why it works for them. Our Novant Health Charlotte Marathon Ambassador Arun Kallikadavil is one of them.

If you know Arun, you know he is an ambitious runner. He’s run marathons all over the world, and each year brings a new focus for him — his AAA plan. (He’s on his 7th “A” year by the way, with the 8th planned for 2022.) His 4th “A,” in 2018, was “Adaptation” — a year of learning to run without shoes. He made his mistakes, and adapted to that, too. We’ll hear more from him in a minute — but first, the research.

As we said, the research won’t tell you whether or not running barefoot, or even minimalist, will make you stronger, faster, or less prone to injury. One of the most-often cited early studies, by Daniel Lieberman, et al., of Harvard, compares the impact runners’ feet made with the ground, both with and without shoes. In a nutshell, barefoot runners tended to run on the mid- and fore-foot with lower strike force than runners in shoes, who landed mostly on their heels at greater force.

As you might expect, other studies followed. Most notably, Peter Weyand and biomechanics researchers at Southern Methodist University fleshed out the understanding of how much force our bodies take when our feet strike the ground in different ways.

Author and journalist (and self-described ex-physicist) Alex Hutchinson sums it up nicely here. And Alex briefs us on another important study from the British Journal of Medicine that is, basically, inconclusive because results were statistically insignificant and barefoot runners ran fewer miles anyway.

There is also, of course, Christopher McDougall’s, Born to Run. His best-selling narrative shed further light on the running prowess of Mexico’s Tarahumara in his pursuit of pain-free running, and arguably elevated the concept of barefoot or minimalist running from the fringes of certain running circles and into the popular culture.

For a rather humorous (albeit long) summary of all of the research, read this from science writer Paul Ingraham on PainScience.com. His conclusion: The studies are inconclusive. Basically, running barefoot will make you more likely to land your foot at mid-foot or front, instead of heel, which will strengthen your calves and hamstrings but can place additional stress your achilles tendon. So if you try it, start slow.

But back to Arun: He trained himself to run barefoot in 2018 and enjoyed the results. He got the idea while running the New York Marathon in 2016, when he encountered a barefoot runner around mile 16, and talked to him for a few miles (whew!). He was fascinated by the idea. He read Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run, which focuses on a Mexican tribe that runs barefoot or in the thinnest of foot protection.

“Naturally, we are created to run barefoot, more than with shoes,” says Arun. He also ran a marathon and half-marathon with relatives in India and noticed quite a few barefoot runners there. He told himself, “Let’s give it a shot,” and so his year of Adaptation was… off and running.

“It’s how humans run, and I adapted to it,” he says. “I made a few mistakes.”

What he did right, though: He didn’t go cold turkey on the shoes. “It was a bit of a process,” he adds. “Adapting ourselves comes first.”

Arun says he started by alternating his running shoes with “zero drop,” or “minimalist,” shoes. His brand of choice was Vibram’s FiveFinger shoes, aka “toe shoes.” At first, he wore his Vibrams on his short-run days.

“Once I got a feel for running in shoes without heels, I ran in Vibrams for a couple of months. Then I alternated between Vibrams and bare feet,” he continued. “It took a month to a month and a half to build calluses, but then it started to harden my feet.” After running a 5k barefoot in April of 2018, he felt like he could continue to train that way.

He also learned a few things the hard way:

1.    Pick your course carefully. The Lake Norman Marathon was a learning experience because there was a stretch of gravel road between miles 8 and 9, and he wasn’t prepared for that. “It was awful for my feet,” he states simply. Gravel isn’t tulips; he had to tiptoe through it… carefully.

2.    Watch below your feet. He learned this the very hard way, on his way to a personal best pace at the Chicago Marathon. At mile 13, he popped his big toe when he hit it on a bridge and it was “really painful.” Ouch. He walked the rest of the way to the finish, but the pain endured. “I realized I must watch carefully,” he says in retrospect.

In fact, and this is a good training note: apply both of these tips to training as well as races. Arun recommends sidewalks and greenways for bare feet, as they are generally more clear of debris than streets.

So his verdict, more than 2 years later? He still runs barefoot or minimalist. If he’s on a track, he’ll go barefoot. On the streets, he’ll run in his Vibrams or Luna sandals — summer or winter. He stretches before and after running, like he would in shoes, and rolls out normal aches and pains with a foam roller or percussion gun. He has adapted, like he had hoped.

“The human body is an amazing thing,” he learned. “It’s not as hard as it appears.” He even runs marathons — including the 2019 Novant Health Charlotte Marathon — in sandals. He plans to do it again this year.

“I have been able to overcome the fear of needing shoes always,” he says. He has adapted his running style, switching from a heel-first runner to a mid-foot and toe runner. “My form naturally adjusted, so I have no back problems.”

It worked for Arun. But again, barefoot or minimalist running isn’t for everyone. If you want to try it, take his cue: start slowly, and build your barefoot runs into your routine instead of going all-in the first week. Like Arun, you may grow to enjoy the feel of the ground against your feet — or not. You may also want to consult with your doctor or a coach before making significant changes to your workout routine.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Yes, You CAN Overdo It — And It Has a Name

August 4, 2021 by admin

If you’ve been able to catch some of our nation’s Olympic athletes in action — either in the Tokyo games or the Olympic Trials — you’ve undoubtedly been inspired by their lifetime quest to go Faster, Higher, Stronger (the Olympic motto).

But the extra year of training — and what a year it’s been! — has put an additional strain on athletes who typically train in 4-year cycles. In addition to the extra 12 months of training, factors like a pandemic, racial tension, and political clashes have added to the emotional stress of training one. more. year. Olympic swim champion Simone Manuel made headlines when she didn’t qualify for Team USA in the event she had won in Rio in 2016. Her reason? She had to take 3 weeks off in April for “Overtraining Syndrome,” or OTS.

Wait, what? Is that a thing? Yes, it is — and always has been, but outside of training circles, it’s simply known as “burnout.” It’s a mental and physical one-two punch that commonly results in constant exhaustion, loss of motivation, and decreased appetite.  And honestly, most of us will never reach that point of training — but if you suddenly decide to overdo your routine to train for something you really aren’t ready for, it can become a reality.

Manuel talked about getting exhausted just walking up stairs, and getting slower and slower in the water despite consistent training. She suffered insomnia, depression, anxiety, chronic soreness, and spikes in her heart rate in training — all classic symptoms. She said there were days she didn’t want to go to the pool.

“It’s not just your physical stress. It’s emotional stress and it physiologically overcomes your ability to recover,” says Dr. Keith Anderson, a Novant Health Family and Sports Medicine Specialist at Novant Health Cotswold Medical Clinic. “If you’re in a period of heavy training and also in an emotionally stressful time, it can tip you over the edge.”

He says these two factors — heavy training and heavy emotional stress – can also contribute to a third factor in OTS – lack of sleep. Without enough sleep, your body can’t recover and the downward spiral gets worse. There’s no blood test for it – the symptoms tell the story.

Dr. Anderson is the Medical Director for the Novant Health Charlotte Marathon and has served on medical teams for the Ironman World Championships and Olympics, in addition to other world-class events. Even at that level, he says he doesn’t see more than a few cases of Overtraining Syndrome a year.

“It’s not your average Joe. Most often, it’s collegiate or pro athletes,” he says. “It’s not often people with a 9-5 job and training for a marathon, who train 30-40 miles a week.”

If your muscles get unusually sore and you can’t shake the fatigue of workouts, Dr. Anderson says you’re more likely suffering from “overreaching” – which is literally what it sounds like. Your body needs rest that it’s not getting. Here are his suggestions:

1. Back off for a few days. Sometimes giving yourself permission to take it easy is the stress reducer you need. Back off the intensity of workouts, or even skip a few days altogether to give muscles time to heal.

2. Go to bed sooner. Turn off the TV, put away the phone (social media, late work emails), and put down the chores. Extra sleep could be just what the doctor ordered. If you’re wired to stay awake, crash on the couch or try sleeping in for a couple of days instead of rising before the sun to get that early morning workout.

“It’s the best way to push back against overtraining,” says Dr. Anderson. Don’t forget to drink plenty of water (instead of coffee or alcohol), and eat good healthy foods with a strong balance of fruits and vegetables. Cherries, avocados, sweet potatoes, and chia seeds all heal broken down muscles.

3. Check your goals. Do you want to just finish a marathon, or win it? Overtraining is far more likely in the person who pushes themselves to be elite. If you’re training for a marathon, cross-training and doing less than 50 miles per week, you may be overreaching instead of overtraining.

“For the vast majority of people, that’s enough to reset things,” says Dr. Anderson. “With a couple of extra days of rest, they’ll reset and do fine.” If, on the other hand, a few weeks away from training still doesn’t help, it’s time to see a doctor. Continuing to push injured muscles can result in an injury.

“If your body is not recovering, you could end up with a stress fracture or torn muscle,” he says. “You may end up with something that keeps you out much longer.”

So stay in tune with your body, and listen to what it’s telling you. It’s okay not to be Faster, Higher, Stronger every day if you’re getting lower, slower, and more exhausted. It’s okay to take a break.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 24
  • Page 25
  • Page 26
  • Page 27
  • Page 28
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 38
  • Go to Next Page »

Copyright © 2025 NOVANT HEALTH CHARLOTTE MARATHON · Developed by well-run media
Privacy Policy