Lactic Acid

As technical director of the annual Boston Marathon, Dave McGillivray spends every race day dashing from one crisis to the next. Then as nightfall nears and his duties are wrapped up, he heads back to the starting line, checks the knots on his shoes and begins his own run along the 26.2-mile course.Bothered by Achilles tendinitis in both heels, McGillivray needed 4 hours and 31 minutes this year to complete his 99th marathon. Among the 100 or so people there to greet him was his massage therapist, with a table set up right there at the finish.

Q. Recently, my mom was suffering from severe back pain. She asked me to read the dosage instructions on her pain reliever because the print was so small. I thought she had misplaced her glasses again, but when I tried to read the bottle I realized why she was having difficulty. My vision is corrected to 20/20, and the print was so small I could not read it.This is potentially dangerous. The manufacturers of over-the-counter pain relievers should enlarge the print on their containers so that consumers, especially those without perfect eyesight, can read the instructions without a magnifying glass.

Q: My opinion of Bobbi Brown Essentials is more favorable tTC than yours, although I buy it only occasionally because the prices are so exorbitant.You drew comparisons between Bobbi Brown Essentials and M.A.C. While M.A.C. has an extensive collection of matte neutral colors, it also has many bright, frosty shadows.Also, some of M.A.C.'s lip colors are garish; they remind me of frosted Yardley lipsticks from the '60s. (I found Bobbi Brown's 5 Rose lipstick to be a great versatile color, although I have since found L'Oreal's Rose Potpourri lipstick a close match at a fraction of the price.

When you run very fast, you become short of breath and feel like you have to slow down, but if you keep pushing yourself, you will suddenly feel refreshed and be able to pick up the pace. Do you know what caused your sudden recovery?It's called "second wind," and it is due to slowing down when you feel exhausted during exercise. When you exercise intensely, your muscles use large amounts of oxygen.If you run fast enough, your muscles will require more oxygen than you can breathe in, and you will develop an oxygen debt that causes lactic acid to accumulate in your muscles.

You're racing against another person for 26 miles and as you approach the last quarter-mile, the two of you start to sprint as fast as you can. Your leg muscles start to burn, and they hurt so much that you can't keep up and you lose the race. If you had known about lactic acid tolerance training, you could have won.You can train yourself to sprint faster at the end of a race by running several 60- to 120-second sprints flat out once or twice a week in practice. When you run without pushing yourself hard, you are able to get all the oxygen that you need, and sugar and fat are broken down into carbon dioxide and water, which you breathe out through your lungs.

World records in running are improving at a fantastic rate, and recent studies indicate those records are getting faster because runners are running much faster while they train.Thirty years ago, top marathon runners trained by using an interval workout of 40 quarter-mile runs averaging about 67 seconds each. Today, no knowledgeable marathon runner would run that many quarter-mile repetitions at such a slow pace. A more respectable workout would be to run only 12 quarters, but to make each run much faster, averaging less than 60 seconds each.

Anabolic steroids are banned by the world's major sports organizations because they cause liver damage and heart attacks. As a result, many athletes looking to become stronger are taking growth hormone instead. Yet a recent study has shown that growth hormone is not altogether effective in making an athlete stronger and also has serious side effects.Kevin Yareshevsky of Washington University in St. Louis tested growth hormone against placebos in young men who also lifted weights. The growth hormone did not make them stronger.

Evan and Rob are runners of equal ability. Evan runs 100 miles a week at a fairly quick pace, but he doesn't do any special speed training. Rob runs 50 miles a week, but he runs very fast twice a week.Rob will run a faster marathon, because running short distances very fast during practice will help the racer cover a longer distance in less time.A runner slows down near the end of a marathon because of a build-up of lactic acid in the muscles. Lactic acid begins to break down as soon as it is exposed to oxygen.

World records in running are getting faster, and studies conducted at the University of Missouri at Columbia show why.Thirty years ago, a top marathon runner would train with a workout of 40 quarter-mile runs, averaging 67 seconds each. Today, no knowledgeable marathoner would run that many quarter-mile repeats that slowly. They know that to run fast in competition, you need to run fast in practice. A more respectable workout would include only 12 quarters, run much faster and averaging fewer than 60 seconds each.

Many people limit their exercise programs to one sport -- a mistake. Because of this, they injure the same part of their body repeatedly. Eventually, the injury fails to heal and they may have to give up that sport forever.Certain sports stress specific parts of the body and are more likely to injure those parts. Most muscle, tendon and joint injuries never really heal completely. As a result, many people spend their lifetimes being injured in one sport and suffering from the very same injury again and again.

Where have all the pickles gone? It wasn't so long ago that every well-dressed American dinner table was bejeweled with an assortment of them - emerald-green tomatoes, ruby-red beets and opalescent pearl onions, as well as less-glamorous (though certainly no less delicious) okra, mushrooms and watermelon rind. The pickle tray was a standard part of a Sunday supper. Nowadays, almost the only pickle you'll find is cucumber. And while there's nothing wrong with your basic bread-and-butter, half-sour or dill, there are so many other possibilities to explore.

Women might be able to protect themselves from HIV infections someday with genetically engineered bacteria that latch onto the virus and keep it from penetrating vaginal tissues, according to research published yesterday. Stanford University scientists are developing the approach, in which they modify a type of naturally occurring bacteria in the vagina to secrete a protein that attracts HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Once trapped on the surface, the HIV is destroyed by other natural substances in the vagina - such as lactic acid - that are toxic to the human immunodeficiency virus.

Have you begun a new exercise program, only to find that unwelcome aches and pains slow you down? Are you asking yourself why, and what you can do for relief? The first step to dealing with exercise-related pain is determining whether it's good or bad. Can any pain be good? Actually, yes. Certain muscle aches are a sign of exertion - an uncomfortable declaration that you are conditioning your body - rather than injury. We're talking about the burning sensation you feel while trying to complete those last three biceps curls, or the muscle soreness you experience a day or two after a workout.

Q. Recently, my mom was suffering from severe back pain. She asked me to read the dosage instructions on her pain reliever because the print was so small. I thought she had misplaced her glasses again, but when I tried to read the bottle I realized why she was having difficulty. My vision is corrected to 20/20, and the print was so small I could not read it.This is potentially dangerous. The manufacturers of over-the-counter pain relievers should enlarge the print on their containers so that consumers, especially those without perfect eyesight, can read the instructions without a magnifying glass.

As technical director of the annual Boston Marathon, Dave McGillivray spends every race day dashing from one crisis to the next. Then as nightfall nears and his duties are wrapped up, he heads back to the starting line, checks the knots on his shoes and begins his own run along the 26.2-mile course.Bothered by Achilles tendinitis in both heels, McGillivray needed 4 hours and 31 minutes this year to complete his 99th marathon. Among the 100 or so people there to greet him was his massage therapist, with a table set up right there at the finish.

Q: My opinion of Bobbi Brown Essentials is more favorable tTC than yours, although I buy it only occasionally because the prices are so exorbitant.You drew comparisons between Bobbi Brown Essentials and M.A.C. While M.A.C. has an extensive collection of matte neutral colors, it also has many bright, frosty shadows.Also, some of M.A.C.'s lip colors are garish; they remind me of frosted Yardley lipsticks from the '60s. (I found Bobbi Brown's 5 Rose lipstick to be a great versatile color, although I have since found L'Oreal's Rose Potpourri lipstick a close match at a fraction of the price.

When you run very fast, you become short of breath and feel like you have to slow down, but if you keep pushing yourself, you will suddenly feel refreshed and be able to pick up the pace. Do you know what caused your sudden recovery?It's called "second wind," and it is due to slowing down when you feel exhausted during exercise. When you exercise intensely, your muscles use large amounts of oxygen.If you run fast enough, your muscles will require more oxygen than you can breathe in, and you will develop an oxygen debt that causes lactic acid to accumulate in your muscles.

You're racing against another person for 26 miles and as you approach the last quarter-mile, the two of you start to sprint as fast as you can. Your leg muscles start to burn, and they hurt so much that you can't keep up and you lose the race. If you had known about lactic acid tolerance training, you could have won.You can train yourself to sprint faster at the end of a race by running several 60- to 120-second sprints flat out once or twice a week in practice. When you run without pushing yourself hard, you are able to get all the oxygen that you need, and sugar and fat are broken down into carbon dioxide and water, which you breathe out through your lungs.

World records in running are improving at a fantastic rate, and recent studies indicate those records are getting faster because runners are running much faster while they train.Thirty years ago, top marathon runners trained by using an interval workout of 40 quarter-mile runs averaging about 67 seconds each. Today, no knowledgeable marathon runner would run that many quarter-mile repetitions at such a slow pace. A more respectable workout would be to run only 12 quarters, but to make each run much faster, averaging less than 60 seconds each.

Anabolic steroids are banned by the world's major sports organizations because they cause liver damage and heart attacks. As a result, many athletes looking to become stronger are taking growth hormone instead. Yet a recent study has shown that growth hormone is not altogether effective in making an athlete stronger and also has serious side effects.Kevin Yareshevsky of Washington University in St. Louis tested growth hormone against placebos in young men who also lifted weights. The growth hormone did not make them stronger.