Friday 27 July 2012

The False Sense of Achievement of the Running Machine

When the doctor turned up at our gym I thought he was kidding when he said he wanted to study my recovery. He said he'd found me via the blog. He was a tall chap, with rimless glasses, a clipboard and a stopwatch. It was only when he emailed me the following that I realised he was pukka. This may be my 15 seconds of fame...

Extract from the British Medical Journal - Spring 2012

"Why Running Machines Don't Help Runners"

Summary: Following an ACL operation our subject built up his strength on a standard gym running machine. After 3 months he was able to comfortably run at a speed of 11km/h for 30 minutes. He then went on a road run. He ran for 27 minutes at a speed of 10.8 km/h, and collapsed in a heap on arriving home.

Conclusion: Running machines give athletes of all abilities a false sense of their fitness.


Explanation: The are three areas where the running machine gives false readings for the athlete.
1 - The treadmill moves whether the athlete is on it or not. Thus the athlete's effort is not in pushing his body forward, or even in pushing the treadmill backwards. The athlete merely has to get his foot forward on each step to stop falling off.
2 - The muscles used are different for treadmill running than street running. As explained in point 1, the athlete is trying to keep up with the treadmill. Whilst there is some overlap in the muscles used, not all the muscles used for street running are engaged in treadmill running.
3 - In street running, 60% of the effort is used in pushing through the air. (For cycling this goes up to 80%) On a treadmill the athlete is not moving through space but is stationary. This means the effort required to 'run' is much less than on the street.

So now I know why I nearly died when I got back from first 5k street run. Science. It's a wonderful thing.

Tuesday 10 July 2012

Five Months Down Four to Go

Having reached what Clodagh referred to as the boring part of my recovery I almost missed the five month anniversary of the operation.

That's today.

I went to the gym and cycled for 30 minutes. The machine said I had traveled 16.1kms. I was pretty pooped. I think if it was a real bike I would have been traveling about half the speed of the cyclists in a time trial on the current Tour de France.

But I'm not competing with them, I'm competing with myself, and I won't lose to myself. Over time I am slowly increasing the speed, and the length of time that I do all of the exercises. I'm mixing it up with the main things being a 30 minute jog (5.16kms), a 10 minute sprint (2.1kms), the long cycle, and a ten minute short cycle (5.4kms). I'm keeping a strict record so that I have a target every time I go.

The cycling is tiring but not a killer. The running though is really tough. I've never liked running and I have to trick myself into doing the whole workout. On the 30 minute run I just take in 3 minute chunks. As I approach 15 minutes and feel like I can't go on, I tell myself I'll stop at 20. At 20 I make myself do another minute with the promise of stopping. Slowly but surely I force myself to do the whole thing.

On all the machines there is a note: If you feel faint, pain, dizziness or short of breath at any time while using this machine stop immediately and visit your physician.

It's an American machine of course, and I don't know any physicians. If I stopped running in any of those circumstances I'd never get past two minutes. All of those things seem to be intrinsic to exercise. I had to give myself the smile test last week when I got home to make sure I hadn't had a stroke.

As I was walking home the other day I saw someone posting taxi cards through doors. I noticed he'd put some into a house with a big and clear sign saying 'No Junk Mail'.

"Hi. Why did you post the card there, where it says no junk mail?"

He looked at me, then at his cards, then at the door. When he spoke I realised he was Eastern European.

"What is yunk mail? This not yunk mail. This my cousin's business, good business. He pay me well. Not yunk."

"I'm sorry, you misunderstand me. (I tried to think of a clear explanation, I failed) Junk mail is defined as post that is not addressed to the household. It's unsolicited."

He stared at me blankly.

"It's mail that the person in the house doesn't want."

"How you know they don't want it?"

"Because they have the sign."

"But they all need taxis."

"They may need taxis occasionally but they don't need you posting your card through their door every day. If they need a taxi I am sure they already have a favourite taxi firm they use."

"How do you know?"

"Because they have the sign on their door saying 'no junk mail'. In simple terms if it doesn't have their name on the envelope they don't want it."

"There is no envelope."

I walked on as he continued posting in every house.