The Warm-Up

Under-slept Athletes are 70 Per Cent More Likely to Develop an Injury

There are lots of studies on how gait, muscle imbalances and under-fuelling lead to injury, but until recently there was limited research on the relationship between sleep deprivation and injury. We know getting lots of sleep is beneficial, but just how much of a difference does it make?

A study out of the Institute for Scholastic Sport Science and Medicine found that in adolescent studentathletes (grades seven to 12), getting under eight hours of sleep led to a 70 per cent greater likelihood of injury. What if someone told you that something you were doing everyday was making your 70 per cent more likely to hurt yourself ? You’d probably stop doing that thing. Injury and inconsistency are two of the main factors that stand between a runner and a personal best, but getting more Zs isn’t always that simple.

Runners are busy people. Between family, jobs and personal lives, runs usually happen in the early morning or late evening. Neither option is optimal for maximizing sleep, but they’re the times best suited to fitting in daily training for most adults. When life gets busy, sleep is usually one of the first things to get compromised.

There are times when hitt ing the snooze button is better for your training than getting your prescribed miles in. If you’re burning the candle at both ends (busy week at work or lots of social obligations), remember to take some time to rest, and if that means skipping your morning workout occasionally, do it. It’s better to have one really great (albeit delayed) workout than two or three terrible ones.

Orkney Islands Runner Breaks Guinness World Record for Ultrarunning

Erica Clarkson of the Orkney Islands, located off the northeastern coast of Scotland where the Atlantic Ocean meets the North Sea, has set an unofficial Guinness World Record for the most consecutive days running an ultramarathon distance (female). Clarkson ran 50k a day (12 4 laps) for 10 consecutive days on the 400m Pickaquoy track near her home in Orkney, breaking the previous record of seven days, set in 2014 by Maria Conceicao of Portugal.

Clarkson had a couple of false starts to her record at tempt (or ig i na l ly scheduled for October), but posted this on December 8: “Between 12–23 December, I’ll be doing my damnedest to set a new women’s World Record for the Most Number of Days to Run an Ultra Marathon Distance on a 400m Track. Yup! In Orkney. In the middle of winter.” In the process, Clarkson raised more than £2,000 for Wellbeingof Women.com, a women’s reproductive health charit y i n the U. K., specif ica lly t argeting menopause research.

Clarkson was also going after the record for most marathons run on consecutive days on a track (which stands at 11 days). She was hoping to run for 12 days, but decided to stop after 10 days. “I’d really hoped to break it by three or four days – to truly to set it in stone,” she told us by email, “but by day nine I was running on painkillers, and I knew that I’d need to stop at day 10. I was at peace with the decision; we’d been adapting our plans throughout the attempt and responding to what came up day to day. Ten days felt OK.”

Clarkson admits to some disappoint ment at missing t he 11-day consecutive-marathon record, but says she doesn’t think this is her first and last record attempt, leaving the door open to possibly attempting that record again in the future.

The pain Clarkson mentions was due to a tendon injury that surfaced on her sixth day of running. “Although we were prepared for some pain, it was pretty excruciating,” she says. “We controlled it with painkillers, taping and massage and a healthy dose of grit – but it felt instinctively that if I was to push my luck too much, that I might do some long-term damage that would throw my 2020 plans into question. It just felt right to call it when we did. My skin was starting to get raw and very sore. There’s a lot of salt in the air on the island, and combined with the wind and cold, no amount of moisturizer and spf50 seemed to help.”

Clarkson, who is 49, wants to raise money for menopause research, a cause she is passionate about due to personal experience. “I really want to make it my mission to show the world that midlifers and older athletes have a lot to offer – that we are entirely relevant and that we can be successful on the road, trail or track,” she says.— CR