Run Long, Run Healthy — May 30, 2024

Pre-Race Pooping Boosts Performance (Not A Joke); Super Shoes Lower Injury Risks; Best Recovery Strategies

PLUS: CBD “no” but running itself enhances mood; why marathon mindset matters; the best shoe for Achilles tendinitis; running and gut health

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Pre-Race Pooping Boosts Performance (Not A Joke)

Here’s a first sentence from a scientific abstract that kept me reading: “Constipation is correlated with diminished cognitive function, revealing a possible rectum-brain connection.”

Really? I know quite a bit about the gut-brain connection because a dozen years ago I suffered from a serious gut-brain illness. (Too long a story to tell now.) But I had never heard about the rectum-brain connection, which I’m now going to call the butt-brain connection. Because, why not?

We still have a lot to learn about how cognitive function affects physical endurance. But few doubt that there is some degree of connection. “The brain is the number one organ that determines your performance and decides how long you can persist your muscle contraction,” explains Chinese professor Chia-Hua Kuo in this article at…