Vitamin E and running

Sunflower seeds are a great way for you, and birds to get all the vitamin E you need.

We’ve already covered everything from super-stars like Vitamin C, to the neglected vitamin K, to the misnamed vitamin D(it is actually a hormone), so it’s about time we examine vitamin E.

Vitamin E is an important fat-soluble nutrient with antioxidant effects, in contrast to vitamin C which is water-soluble. This means that vitamin E needs to be consumed with fat to get properly absorbed, and once in the body is stored in fatty tissue which it helps protect from oxidative damage. Like so many other vitamins, and in particular the fat-soluble vitamins, vitamin E can be toxic in high doses.

Now let’s see if vitamin E did anything for runners. According to the Department of Sport and Physical Activity, Edge Hill University Ormskirk, Lancashire, UK, in Vitamin E supplementation does not alter physiological performance at fixed blood lactate concentrations in trained runners:

CONCLUSION:

Daily VE supplementation for 35 days does not enhance or impair physiological performance at fixed blood lactate concentrations. Long-term VE supplementation for the purposes of performance enhancement is not recommended.

Yet another nutrient that doesn’t give you superpowers. There’s really no need for anyone to take supplemental vitamin E, unless your doctor tells you to because you have a rare disorder. Supplementation does nothing for runners, and probably isn’t necessary for people in general. Just some eat nuts, seeds, whole-grains, and leafy greens on a regular basis and you will get all the vitamin E you need.

New joggling record set in the rain

Laugh at bad weather. Unless the rain is especially heavy, or there’s tornadoes or a hurricane, don’t let “bad” weather interfere with your running routine. Yet again I learned the important lesson today to not let the weather prevent me from performing at my best.

It was raining, but luckily it was light. It was about 40 farenheit(4.4 C) but I didn’t feel the cold. There were a lot of puddles around that I dodged or jumped over. There was just slightly more than a hint of wind. I recently purchased some new sneakers, but wore my older pair since there is still some life in them. I wore sweatpants instead of shorts and had gloves and sunglasses(not very dark ones because of how cloudy it was)on. I didn’t really feel that energetic in the morning when I joggled. My breakfast was my usual bialys with sunflower seeds. 

Unfortunately, my feet got a little wet due to the rain and due to stepping in a few puddles(I need to work on this!), and my gloves got wet also. My sweatshirt and hat also got very wet. Worst of all, my sunglasses got wet and foggy, in spite of the baseball type hat I had on. I sometimes had trouble seeing the balls or my surroundings, but I couldn’t dry them for obvious reasons.

And yet, I broke all previous records. I consistently joggled 3 balls in 1 hour and 5 minutes, covering a distance of 6.7 miles(10.7 km) from start to finish without dropping any of the wet balls even once. I still have trouble believing it. I almost dropped the balls about 5 times(usually while doing tricks) but managed to catch them at the last second. I didn’t even intend to break any records, since I was kind of tired and thought the wet weather would interfere with my joggling. It didn’t. It was an amazing experience, though very exhausting toward the end. I didn’t even do any warm-ups before the run.

I still consider myself to be a total clutz.