Long Run Tips

Here are my top 10 tips for long (ish) distance running, for all you potential Great North Runners and all you other crazy fools that have signed up for a half marathon. These may be subject to change once my beautiful marathon training begins (HELP), but I have found these pretty foolproof when training for half marathons (this includes distance training from 5-6 miles +) and distances just slightly longer!

1.       Plan a route that takes you as far from your house/starting point as possible. Why? Well the further you get away from your starting point on that beginning buzz, the further you have to run back! I know this sounds a bit obvious, but you will be surprised when you hit that mental wall on your long runs, how tempting it is to sack it in if you’re near your house and say “it’s ok I’ll do it next time”.  The best tool for this is www.mapmyrun.com/

 

2.       Train outside. This one may also seem a bit obvious, but it is surprising how tempting it is to train on the treadmill. There’s lots of research to say that treadmill training is better for you, to reduce the impact on your joints, but what they fail to mention is that it also takes away some of the effort from your legs and helps to create muscle imbalances which are just as bad! I trained for my first half marathon completely on the treadmill, and let me tell you I got the shock of my life running outside (not to mention that it took me two weeks to be able to walk properly again). Running outside is much harder, and you burn around 100 calories more on a 6 mile run outside, whereas on a treadmill 6 mile run you burn around 50 calories less than the treadmill actually says!

3.       Strength train for endurance, your muscles will thank you. Too many people focus on cardio purely. Yes this is good and you will become a machine, however 5 years down the line your back and legs won’t be too happy with all the funky different sized muscles you have due to poor posture. Strength training not only helps improve your running endurance but also helps to correct those imbalances and prevent any nasty injuries.

4.       Remember your carbs. Carbohydrate intake is everything; this includes all you runners that have taken up the sport with the hope of also losing some weight. Firstly without carbs in your system, your body will feel positively crap and every run will fill you with dread. Secondly, on that big day without carbs you will most likely hit the wall and it aint pretty! Finally, without carbs your body won’t burn fat, instead all your efforts will be wasted and you will burn muscle, most likely having a body fat percentage higher than when you started running (don’t question me, it’s science!) Obviously good carbs such as whole grains, fruit and veg are important.

5.       Good music. Running can be fun and exciting. In fact scrap can, it is. When you start to train for longer distances you will notice a lot of your time is taken up with running (not a bad thing), and despite that lovely friend that tries to join you when they can, you still sometimes find yourself alone, just you and that nice long run. Music is my motivator here, a good song or two can sometimes help a mile go by without you realising and has been proven in research to be a fantastic pace setter!

6.       Stick to your comfy clothes. Forget what looks good and trendy, or is the new scientifically proven anti sweat wear. Stick with what you know is comfy. Chaffing is a bitch and there is nothing that ruins a good long run like the seam on your t-shirt or your shorts giving you rubbing grief 3 miles from the end.

7.       Hydration. Similar to carbs, without adequate water intake you are going to hit the wall and will want to die, and in future dread every long run you ever do. You should usually be able to run 6 miles without water (if you haven’t been on a booze binge and are already reasonably hydrated), any longer and you need at least a bottle with you. From 1 hour plus make sure you take regular sips. Obviously once you’re thirsty it’s too late, you glug it down and then spend the rest of the run with it glugging in your belly and feeling like you’re going to vom.

8.       Nice padded shoes. Make sure you wear the right footwear for your stride; otherwise you are going to have injuries galore. Running shops usually do this for free if you purchase a pair from their store. Also watch your mileage on your shoes, when you think they’re starting to give up on you get a new pair, otherwise the impact of long distance runs will result in the delightful shin splints.

9.       Acclimatise. This is one of the most important parts of training along with having to train outdoors, and include hill training. Unfortunately a lot of running events tend to be in the lovely depth of those long and hot summer months, and if you focus all your training in the early mornings or late evenings when it is cooler, when race day comes along you’re going to struggle. Getting your body used to the race day climate is very important, it also helps you to get used to how much water you need to take on. If it’s hot don’t forget the factor 30!

10.   Keep going. When you feel like giving up, remember that every runner has been there and faced the same mental challenge. If you do give up, don’t beat yourself up just try again. If you push through the mental barrier, the satisfaction you will feel from accomplishing the distance challenge will far exceed any satisfaction of getting into a smaller clothes size and will help you realise how tough you are mentally even if your body doesn’t always think so. 

As a last pointer after this mammoth blog, remember that long distance running is tough anyway. The training to get there is tougher, but physically nothing is worth doing if it’s not a challenge. Over time your body will adjust and you will look back and remember the days when a 3 mile run was a struggle and smile to yourself at what you have achieved.

The beautiful no sugar experiment...

For all you beautiful people out there that wonder what sort of affect, even the smallest amounts of refined sugar can do to you body, I am volunteering myself as a fitness monkey for 3 weeks, beginning on the 1^st of May :(

The theory behind it…

Well, as you have seen in one of my previous blogs, refined sugar is pretty much crap for you and has absolutely no nutritional benefits whatsoever. For all you people on a health kick and thinking that those sugary weight watchers products and whatever other marketed weight loss products you’re consuming, that basically reinforce sugar intake but in smaller amounts , are acceptable, this mini experiment will hopefully open your eyes. For those that are pretty much healthy but consume the odd alcoholic beverage (or two) and a few biscuits or sweet treats here and there, this experiment will hopefully show that even at minimal intake levels, sugar has disastrous effects on the body!

As a personal trainer I eat very VERY healthily….the majority of the time. Unfortunately since childhood I’ve had it embedded in my mind, how beautiful pudding is, and have to have one most days (please do not think less of me; I do make sure that I consume less elsewhere). I also love the odd tipple, or ten. Despite this, I train on average around 12 hours a week (phew I couldn’t believe it when I totalled it up), so I’m quite lucky that these treats I love rarely have an effect on my body….or do they?

The purpose…

So what’s the point right? Well I eat healthily 80% of the time and train my little arse off but have I hit a plateau with my fitness and body fat due to the small amounts of refined sugar I consume?

This was all too much for my curiosity so I decided, that for 3 weeks I will do without any kind of refined sugar products or alcoholic beverages (*sobs*) and let you know exactly what even the teeniest bits can do to a hardcore fitness junkie, which will hopefully put it into perspective what the rest of you are doing to your bodies!

How will we know if it’s worked…

I will do the most humiliating task, of posting my body stats on the internet (how embarrassing). They will include my height, weight, body fat percentage, visceral fat , BMR and metabolic age. They will be done at the beginning and end of the experiment and we will see if they change!

To further prove a point on how sugar can affect your fitness, for all you aspiring athletes out there, I will also do a timed 3 mile run, seeing whether a reduced sugar intake affects my performance over the 3 weeks.

And of course I will keep you all updated on my little journey to some amazing (hopefully) results!!!!

My little experiment with power plates...

So I was asked by a fellow tweeter what I thought about power plates, and the honest truth was that they were asking about something I had never tried nor ever contemplated trying. This wasn’t for any particular reason I just usually beast myself into oblivion anyway and never thought about incorporating them into my workouts. Anyhu, when my fellow tweeter asked the question, I took it upon myself to make a little experiment out of this blog and give you the lowdown, through the loss of my Power Plates virginity, what I really thought!

The general theory behind the power plates is that the vibrations help to give the muscles a high speed workout, by encouraging them to contract and relax, while you complete your resistance, core and stretching routines.

My overall verdict: Yes I may use the power plates again from time to time.

The Power Plate Pro’s:

1.       For all you regular gym users, they’re a good way of mixing it up and using your body in different ways. Remember when it comes to fat burn and fitness, variety is crucial so that your muscles don’t become used to what you are doing.

2.       It feels funny.

3.       For those that aren’t used to using certain muscles (the majority of the population has forgotten how to use their glutes i.e. Your bum), it is a great way to reactivate muscles and get you used to the sensation of how those muscles feel when they are working out. Therefore, when you embrace the magnificent world that is free weights, you know exactly how those muscles should be feeling if you are doing a particular exercise on those muscles right.

4.       Again it’s a way of mixing it up, making the gym a bit more exciting and less tedious.

The Power Plate Con’s:

1.       I have seen many an advert, and heard many a conversation along the lines of “Power Plates are amazing, all you have to do is stand on them and they help you lose weight”. My response to this: “Na, don’t be stupid”. Exercise is still exercise and there are no quick fix, long term approaches to looking and feeling good. In order to get the most benefits out of Power Plates you need to have a well thought out, and structured programme to use.

2.       They made me feel a bit funky and I felt like I was literally buzzing for a while after.

3.       Power Plates alone will not help you drop body fat and tone up. Like all exercise it’s about having a good well balanced diet, lots of cardio and resistance training (some of which can be done on the Power Plates to add variety and new challenges to your workouts).

What I did on the Power Plates:

1.       A variety of squats including: sumo squats, prison squats and squat pulses.

2.       Calf Raises

3.       Tricep Dips

Overall I felt like I got a good mini workout as they were some good old school exercises that your body easily gets used to; so it made them a bit more challenging. However, as I have only ever used the Power Plates once I cannot comment on how effective I think they will be in the long run.

Power Plates ahoy!

The most harmful drug of all...

Sugar. Nuff said.

Sugar is considered by many, the most harmful drug of all. Why you ask?
Well the first problem with sugar is very simple; it’s legal and marketed to hell. Supermarkets are a killer for all those helpless souls trying to beat the sugar buzz, due to that beautiful word, marketing. Leading brands of high calorie and high sugar foods actually pay big money to have their products placed at eye level on store shelves, the effect of which is temptation, as everything you are trying to avoid is in direct eyesight. KILLER.

The second problem with sugar is the buzz. You know that feeling as soon as you consume a sugary product and you feel like you’re high on life. Nope, you’re not high on life; you’re just high on sugar. When a high sugar product is consumed it causes an instant rise in blood sugar, leaving you feeling brighter and perkier. But just as quickly as your blood sugar levels rise, they come crashing straight back down, leaving you tired, lethargic and just plain grouchy. To get over the come down you have more sugar and so the cycle goes on, reinforcing both your sugar addiction (like an alcoholic sobering up will consume more alcohol), and resulting in weight gain through consuming mass amounts of energy dense foods that leave you feeling unsatisfied.

Not only does sugar show similarities to drugs, with regards to its resulting addictive behaviours, but Dr. David Reuben, author of Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Nutrition says, “…white refined sugar-is not a food. It is a pure chemical extracted from plant sources, purer in fact than cocaine, which it resembles in many ways. Its true name is sucrose and its chemical formula is C12H22O11.”

So there’s the big hype about sugar as a drug, but I suppose the question isn’t whether or not sugar is like a drug, but why it is the most harmful drug. This is where I come back to my original point about it being legal, as this is where the problem lies. A LOT of parents are feeding children as young as one (sometimes younger which is just plain horrific), those high sugar products, that set the population up for sugar induced, addictive behaviours in their everyday diets.

Despite the fact that governments and public figures are now regularly stating the disadvantages of consuming high sugar products, the fact still remains that sugar is legal and readily available at a very cheap price wherever we turn. Alcohol and smoking are both similar in that they are legal and considered socially acceptable and often a social experience, like sugar; the difference is, when breaking addictive behaviours with smoking and alcohol they can be avoided. However, food is faced three times daily, and often the choice to avoid their sugar addiction is too much for some.

If this doesn’t get you thinking when putting refined, sugary products in your mouth then just remember, you won’t get a superstar figure or mouth with a high sugar diet. Rotten teeth and lots of flab is the most you can hope for; if you’re one of those lucky people that can put whatever you want in your mouth and still look slim, then below is what you are doing to your insides.

 (The beautiful bright yellow stuff in the middle is yummy fat on a skinny person...delish!)

Why am I doing this again...

 In order to achieve something you need to have a target or a goal. How can you say you have been successful or accomplished what you set out to do, if you didn’t have a point that you wanted to reach from the beginning?

The goal setting is usually the easier part of the challenge. Most people sign up for their first 5k, then a 10K; some people set themselves a certain weight loss. Even athletes set themselves a goal, to break a record, win a gold medal or beat a personal best.

I often think that athletes, whether professional or recreational, and people with a weight or fitness goal in mind, are very similar; I often relate a lot of my training philosophies to athletics, especially running, as I think the mindset required is very similar to that of someone attempting to lose weight. But at some point, no matter what the goal, we will question what we are doing, and this is the challenge. Mindset is everything.

"It's very hard in the beginning to understand that the whole idea is not to beat the other runners. Eventually you learn that the competition is against the little voice inside you that wants you to quit." - George Sheehan

Take for instance myself. I consider myself a recreational athlete. I push myself to my limits and truly believe that if something isn’t a challenge then there isn’t much point in doing it. I believe that the challenges that we face physically, help us mentally. When you present yourself with the question during a training session, during a long distance run, or even while preparing a healthy meal “why am I doing this”, take a moment to think about other aspects of life that are tough. For instance when paying the bills, revising for an exam, or even getting through a hard day at work, you don’t think about it, you just do it. It is this mentality that should be applied to all aspects of life in order to achieve happiness and health. It is this mentality that can be applied to weight loss or a fitness goal. See these goals like paying the bills; failure is not an option, they have to be paid, your goals have to be achieved.

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Health isn’t just something that should be achieved because scientists and the government say it’s what is right. Health is life. Without good health, how can we achieve all that we want to achieve, or see and do all that we aspire to? Again I like to think back to running. Running becomes easy when you train hard and give it your all, without seeing failure as an option. This is the same as life and health; if you think that failure is not an option, you often find a solution and it becomes easier over time.

"Running is the greatest metaphor for life, because you get out of it what you put into it." - Oprah Winfrey

So when you ask yourself, “Why am I doing this again...” whether it be that you are trying to lose weight or run your first 10k, think of the bigger picture. Those small moments when you doubt yourself, push through them and succeed, then believe that anything is possible.

"Running is a big question mark that's there each and every day. It asks you, 'Are you going to be a wimp or are you going to be strong today?'"
- Peter Maher, Canadian marathon runner

Hills, hills and more hills...

There's only a few words I've found in my experience of the fitness industry, that can make the majority of people turn visably pale right before your very eyes. There's the plank, pressups, squats, and then there's hills....

Interesting enough when I mention hill training to any clients or even think of it myself, this is the image that pops into most people's heads. Looks horrific doesn't it.... but hill training doesn't have to be the equivalent of going up a mountain or a gradient of 20%

Unfortunately, hill training is pretty important, but equally as important is baby steps, especially if you are used to running on flat surfaces.

There are a few little rules when it comes to hill training:

Rule 1

You've been running for a few months, you've steadily increased your distances and feel like  pro. One catch...it's all been on flat routes. So one day you decide you're going to take your training to the next level, whack on your faithful running shoes and find the biggest, meanest hill you can find, to prove that you're the ultimate runner.

Best advice I can offer to help with your hill training, don't tackle the big beasts first. Chances are you will end up with a pretty nasty calf injury, as ploughing the steepest hills straight away is pretty much as bad as a first time runner heading out and attempting a marathon. Your legs won't be used to it, you will be using your muscles in new ways and will need to build up your strength and endurance gradually.

Rule 2

Don't let the big boys defeat you. The phrase "no pain no gain" comes to mind; the phrase that makes every person new to exercise, want to soccer punch their trainer in the face. Hills unfortunately are tough, and probably more of a mental challenge than psyching yourself up for a nice steady 20 mile run. When it comes to the mental challenge of hills there are a couple of things to remember, that will make them a lot easier and less painful:

1. Don't panic - try and keep your breathing level the same as when you are running on the flat, in fact try and put the picture of the hill out of your mind and pretend you're on the flat!
2. Take smaller steps. Galloping up those hills may seem like the best idea in the world. The bigger the steps, the more distance I cover, the quicker I get to the top right? Wrong. The bigger the steps you take up your hills the harder your body will have to work to pull you up to the top. So in this rare case, less is more. Keep those steps short and quick and you'll be to the top in no time!
3. Get some good tunes on - use the rhythm of the song to help you stay at a good pace, or just use the song to zone out and try and pretend you're not running uphill.

Just remember. Nothing is worth doing if it's easy - especially when it comes to your fitness, so although hills are the devil, they are one of the best workouts you can get. If you want to become a champion runner (see me in the image, this was all through hill training), embrace the hills!!!

About me

Hi guys and gals!

I'm a Personal Trainer based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, and thought I would write a bit of a fitness blog for you all to see what I'm up to, reading, thinking blah blah blah.

I specialise in training with runners (or aspiring runners), posture correction, toning and weight management so hopefully I will mention something at some point that will interest everyone!

I like to run A LOT.....

.....so if you see somebody pounding the pavements in Newcastle that looks a bit like this don't hesitate to join me!