Q:    I was recently on a Track-and-Field Internet Message board and found a lively discussion concerning the best pace to utilize for 'recovery runs', i.e., longer runs on non-speed-work days. I remember you commenting on the Kenyans' habit of gradually increasing speed to match race pace for a short while on easy days, and you have also talked about throwing in a race-pace mile in the middle of a long run. What about these medium-length runs? What is the best way to approach them?
Charles Robb, Boston

A:    It is almost always a good idea to increase the quality of your training - as long as it does not interfere at all with your recovery, i. e., as long as the additional injections of quality don't stop you from carrying out your regular, high-quality sessions as effectively as possible. There's little doubt that a six-mile run which includes 1/2 to one mile at race pace plus five to 5.5 miles at an easy level of exertion is 'better' for you than six miles at an easy pace; in the former case, average %VO2max is higher, lactate production is greater, and there is a greater stimulus for improvement in neuromuscular efficiency during quality running. It's only really better for you, though, if you can come back the following day and still complete your 4 x 1 mile at race speed (or some similar, high-quality session) with the same intensity you would have achieved had you run all six miles easily. 'Shots' of quality should not increase your fatigue, your muscle soreness, your glycogen depletion, or your psychological stress enough to impede your overall training; taking that into account, it's always best to add quality to your training very carefully.

Don't worry too much about the average speed of the easy portions of your runs; the key thing is that easy running should truly feel easy. If you choose a pace which is 45 seconds per mile slower than your 10-K pace for your easy run, rather than 90 seconds slower, for example, it's unlikely that the choice of the faster pace would have a noticeable impact on your fitness. Since both speeds are below lactate-threshold velocity and thus are not potent fitness boosters, the best idea would be to simply get in your miles at an easy pace (along with perhaps a little quality), accrue the benefits associated with the mileage, and make sure you are ready for your next significant high-quality session.

Q:    I'm an experienced endurance athlete. I'm 64 years old, have been training for 18 years, and have been ranked in the top 10 in my part of the country for several years. I usually train for about five hours each week. Roughly two or three years ago (maybe longer; the problem developed so slowly that it's hard to remember the exact onset), I developed a chronic soreness in my hamstrings. It didn't materially hurt my training, was mostly a severe annoyance, but did cause me to back off a bit on my speed work from time to time. I did all the usual things - stretched, rested, completed hill workouts, used leg extensions with weights, etc., but nothing really helped. Last April, I began supplementing my diet with whey protein and within about two weeks the soreness went away completely. I haven't have the soreness since. I add about 50 gms of whey protein to my diet most days. Primarily what I do now is to drink a water/protein mix (8 oz water with 23 gms protein] immediately following all workouts. On most days I drink a second glass of the same.

My theory is this: older endurance athletes don't get enough protein. We can't handle 3000 total calories a day like young studs; 1500 is about it for us. Thus, we are only getting about 100 gms of protein (assuming about a third of the calories are protein), whereas the young runners are getting about 200 gms. Yet, I would assume our protein requirements are about the same. What do you think?
Martin Jackson, Weymouth

A:    It's a very interesting point. As you may know, the protein requirements for endurance athletes haven't been firmly established - and probably vary from individual to individual. Most experts say that 1.5 grams of protein per kg. of body weight is more than enough, so if you weigh about 67 kg (147 lb) or less, 100 grams should be plenty. But it's not a certainty, and many athletes weigh more than that. It's also possible that protein requirements may rise with age (exercise may produce more protein breakdown in older athletes). But, looking at the problem in a different way, I doubt that 1500 calories are enough for you. If you weigh 150 pounds, for example, you need over 2000 calories just for maintenance, assuming you are moderately active. Add almost an hour of exercise per day, and your caloric needs go up to 2700 calories or more. Thus, the added whey protein might have helped you not because it was protein but simply because it contained calories. It's possible that your body might have simply stripped the nitrogens off the amino acids and used the whey as expensive 'carbohydrate'. Muscle soreness can definitely result from inadequate carbohydrate and total-calorie intake - and can disappear as soon as carbs and calories are adequately supplied.

Q:    I'm troubled by pain on the inside of my knees when I train and feel that the problem is related to weakness of my vastus medialis muscles. Can you recommend some functional strengthening exercises for the insides of my knees?
Kate Thorne, Gateshead

A:    Here are the inside-knee exercises I would recommend (they actually strengthen the whole leg while emphasizing strong work for the muscles running along the inside of the knee):

(1) Stand on your left foot only (keep your right leg flexed at the knee so that your right foot is off the ground), flex your left knee slightly, and while maintaining good balance and upright posture pump your arms back and forth as though you were running. Continue for 30 seconds, repeat on right foot, and then repeat on both feet.
(2) From a natural running posture (body relaxed, feet under your shoulders, knees slightly bent), step forward and laterally with your left foot so that your left foot comes to rest about two feet ahead of your right foot and at about a 45-degree angle from straight ahead (your left foot should continue pointing straight ahead, however - don't angle your foot in the direction of the step). Go into a slight squat (you should feel tension on the inside of your left knee as you do this), hold the squat for a second, and then quickly hop over to the centreline (i.e., onto an imaginary line which splits your body into two equal parts and runs straight ahead of your body) with your left foot while your right foot remains in contact with the ground (to put it another way, the centreline is simply the straight-ahead position - the one you would have reached if you had originally stepped straight ahead instead of diagonally; your left foot remains ahead of your right foot as you complete the hop to the centreline). Then, simply move your left foot back to the level of your right foot, and repeat the basic action (diagonal lunge, hop over to centreline, step back to original starting point) several more times (start with about six reps and work up from there over time). For balance, do the same thing with your right foot.
(3) Stand sideways on a small step, with the outside of your left foot aligned with the edge of the step. While maintaining full body weight on your left foot, pick your right foot up off the step surface, cross it over in front of your left leg, and let it drop down slightly below the level of the step - just outside your left foot. As you do this, your left hip will naturally move laterally so that your left leg will actually angle inward from the hip down to the foot. Most of your body weight will actually be supported by the outside of your left foot (i.e., you'll be supinating at the ankle). You should feel a stretch plus contraction on the inside of your left knee as your right foot descends. Return to the starting position and repeat three to four more times, adding more reps over time. For balance, do the same with your right leg. Make sure the step is not too high, and please don't fall - keep good balance at all times (have something to grab if you need to).
(4) On an inclined surface (driveway, pitched treadmill, etc.), stand on your left foot only, with your foot directed sideways to the direction of the inclination. The outside of your left foot should be lower than the inside of your left foot (the inside will be the 'up' side of your foot). If you use an inclined treadmill, you would be turned sideways on the treadmill with the outside of your left foot toward the back of the mill. Then, simply hop sideways up the slope, letting your knee bend slightly with each impact and taking small hops at first (you'll always have to take small hops on a treadmill). Complete 10 hops, and then do the same with your right foot.
Please go easy! Just a few reps to begin with, or the cure may make your knee bite back!

Q:    I'm troubled by occasional anaemia. Can you recommend some tips for ensuring that I get more iron from my diet? If I do take iron supplements, do I have to worry about when I take them - or what I take them with?
Maureen Fitzgerald, Lincoln

A (from Randy Eichner, M. D.):    For athletes not on iron pills, these are the five tips I give for absorbing more iron from their diet.
(1) Eat 3 oz of lean red meat three times a week.
(2) Don't drink coffee or tea with meals (you can drink it one to two hours before or after).
(3) Consume orange juice or another source of vitamin C with breakfast; avoiding coffee and tea and substituting orange juice can triple the amount of iron you absorb from cereal or bread.
(4) Occasionally cook in cast-iron cookware, especially when you prepare acidic foods like eggs, tomato sauce, vegetable soup (these foods leach iron from the cooking pot).
(5) Frequently eat mixed meals (i.e., chicken, fish, or meat with veggies, beans, or legumes) so that the 'meat-factor' (present even in fish and chicken) can enhance iron absorption. If women follow these five tips, they can often stay iron-replete and so not need iron pills. Most people absorb plenty of iron from pills or meat, regardless of what they eat or don't eat with them (including vitamin C). It's absorption of iron from 'non-meat' foods (cereals, grains, veggies, legumes, etc.) that varies a lot depending on what you consume with them.

It's true that calcium (in dairy products) can inhibit iron absorption. And coffee (not caffeine), because of its polyphenols, can inhibit iron absorption as well. So can tea (because of its tannins), eggs, and cow's milk (from calcium and phosphoproteins), wheat bran (from phytates), and other fibres. Besides iron-absorption inhibitors, our diet also has enhancers, the main two being vitamin C in general and meat-enhancing iron absorption from legumes (e.g., beef in bean chili increases absorption of iron in the beans). In general, with a varied Western diet, the net effect (on iron absorption) of inhibitors or enhancers is small, because no given inhibitor or enhancer is plentiful in enough meals to matter much. So I tell athletes to relax and - other than not taking calcium supplements and iron pills at the same time - stop fretting over trivial pluses or minuses in iron absorption.