Among runners, you are bound to find some who enjoy the breeze of an early morning run, some who love the upbeat warmth of an afternoon run and some who simply cannot resist the allure of night running. The time of the day does have minor effects on our running. Let's take this analogy: Suppose you are back in your high school days, do you remember yourself working best at revision in the day or night? There is a high probability that you are more efficient at a certain period of the day. Similarly, you can expect a similar trend for running.
Dpending on our living habits, different periods of the day appeal to different extents to our running desire. For the early risers, the body readily welcomes morning runs. For the night owls, the body might prefer revving up to run only after sundown.
This is understandable. Running is a form of physical activity and it requires considerable will and energy to garner the willingness to kick-start and finish a session each time. For this very reason, runners often need to acclimatise their bodies to the actual race timeframe while preparing for a race.
When training, it is good to try out many different time slots of the day, within permitable limits of your free time. You may find that you run easier and faster during a certain period of the day. Try to find that optimal moment, during which you are mostly energized and well rested enough to train best.
Over time, your mind also varies in its ability to stay focused and relaxed. Through trial and error, it is possible to find that period when your body can perfect its training like clockwork.
When you've discovered your optimal training period, that is when you can capitalise on it and train for faster runs more efficiently.
The answer lies in what is produced by the body when a person exercises.
Under normal circumstance of aerobic exercise, the body takes in oxygen for cellular respiration. In this process, the oxygen is utilised in a series of reactions to release energy. The oxygen loses electrons and forms a tiny little devil known as free radical. Free radicals can attack cells in our body. They are known to be contributing factors to ageing, cancer, cell death, heart disease, Alzheimers' disease and a string of other conditions.
Under training conditions of an avid runner (amateur or professional alike), the body undergoes higher amounts of cellular respiration. Thus, larger quantities of free radicals are being produced, that can cause potentially more harm to the body. This is exacerbated long periods of intensive endurance training, like months of regular long distance running.
Having said all that, all is not lost. A group of substances called anti-oxidants, is known to combat free radicals. The body is naturally equipped to produce anti-oxidant enzymes (a kind of specific protein molecule), which in turn eliminates the free radicals from the body. Apart from the enzymes from the body, there are also external sources of anti-oxidants available (in food). Anti-oxidants are substances like vitamin A (beta carotene), vitamin C, vitamin E, ubiquinol, lipoic acid and uric acid. These can be obtained from the diet, mostly from fruits and vegetables.There are 2 schools of thought when it comes to taking anti-oxidants from food. 1 school of thought is that our body is highly efficient, and would quickly adjust to adapt to increased amounts of free radicals due to exercsie. The body would generate more enzymes to eliminate the higher amounts of free radicals. Another school of thought is that there is a threshold that the body is able to handle when it comes to free radicals. Under prolonged exercise, the amount of free radicals generated may be too much for the body to handle well. Hence, additional sources of anti-oxidant from food is useful.
Anti-oxidants are known for extensive health benefits, including anti-ageing. It has been suggested (albeit without official evidence) that the high levels of free radicals produced during the trainings of endurance athletes (like runners) actually stimulates the body to produce more of these anti-oxidants, resulting in endurance athletes staying "younger". Ensuring a healthy dosage of anti-oxidants in your diet thus not only aids in recovery from trainings, it also helps to keep yourself in the pink of health.
A run can range from a leisurely jog of a few hundred metres to a longer run of a few kilometres. During these runs, your feet makes hundreds and thousands of steps. Each step made sends the impact directly up your legs. This impact increases with increased speed and distance. To minimise the potential damage that may result over time, an appropriate pair of shoes should be selected for your run.
The basic step to knowing which shoes to buy is knowing your own feet. There are 3 basic kinds of foot: Low arch feet, normal arch feet, high arch feet. The diagrams below show the back view and side view of each kind of feet.
You can do a simple test to ascertain the kind of arch your feet has. Wet your both feet and make 2 wet footprints by standing upright on a large piece of cardboard paper. Look at the footprint of yours. Which of the footprints below does yours resemble?
Low arch
A low arch feet is actually a condition known as flat foot. When you run, the sole of your feet tend to "roll inwards" excessively so that almost the whole feet is flatly compressed on the ground. This kind of feet with "rolling inwards" is also termed as overpronated. This might cause problems for the legs over time and needs to be controlled.
Normal arch
A normal arch is what most people would have, with slightly arched feet. This is the neutral / ideal feet that runners would like.
High arch
A high arch feet has a characteristic area of the sole not touching the ground when walking. This condition is called supinated. Supinated feet tend to be underpronated, meaning it does not really roll in.
Based on the kind of condition of your feet, you should then look for shoes that are best suited to support your arch and absorb the impact you are prone to receive.
Check out the upcoming article where we will feature more on shoe selection based on your feet type!
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Stretching, if done correctly and adequately, is a good preventive measure that helps your body warm up for your training, improve mobility and avoid injury.
The focus is on completeness of each stretch. No matter which body part being stretched, you should maintain the posture for a minimum period of time to achieve the desired effects. Typically, keeping to 20 seconds is a bare minimum. For parts that are prone to greater usage and intensity of exercise, more time should be spent. My personal habit is to keep each stretch to at least 30 seconds to 1 minute.
Sometimes people have the myth of 'pain is better'. A good stretch should make you feel that particular muscle group being brought to tension gradually. The emphasis is on controlled motion. A sudden jerk, a forceful stretch or sharp pain are things to avoid. Remember, stretching exercises are meant to improve performance and reduce injury, so don't kill yourself doing it.
Many of the high intensity and high impact sports (like soccer, basketball, rugby) often carry the highest casualty numbers. The fact is simple. The sudden increase in speeds and change in directions during these sports necessitates the body to be at its tip-top form. Players who are too anxious to jump into the game(literally, for some) often neglect this stage of stretching and end themselves in unnecessary injuries and discomfort.
Stretching must always cater to the specific muscles and joints that will be used during the exercise. Like uncooked dry sphaghetti, a cold and unstretched muscle is more prone to "snap" or resist smooth motion. Conversely, like cooked sphaghetti, a well-stretched and warmed-up muscle will be more fluid and flexible for motion.
Even on rest days, you can do a simple stretching routine to keep those joints and muscles of yours nimble and flexible. This is especially beneficial as you taper towards your race date. As training progressively lighten, you need to sustain the body's conditioning. Stretching well regularly during the weeks prior to the race will provide that added finnese to your readiness and post-race recovery.
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A common fallacy of over-zealous runners is to focus on keeping to a certain speed and trying to run a personal best timing everytime. This may contribute to some of their feel-good factor. Looking at it closely, if every training run is focused at speed, would the runner have sufficient time to adapt or recover for the later stages of training?
When training, u should work towards clocking your desired mileage eventually. That would ensure that u finish the race, at least. Ultimately, your training is to prepare u to finish the race in good stead.
Your trainings should provide gradual increase in distance until u have reached your target race distance or more. The increase is progressive, not abrupt. For 5 to 10km, progressive fortnightly increase of 2 km is good. For 10 to 20 km, fortnightly increase of 3 to 5km is average. Beyond 20 km, it would depend more on individual fitness and limits, usually capped at 7 km maximum.
The build up of mileage is important as your body needs the time and experience to acclimatise to the intensity and raise your endurance. That should be the baseline and foundation u aim for when training. As u get used to running the distance, your body can then channel more energy towards strengthening for speed. U can start working on pushing your muscles to go faster and recover in a shorter time. As u continue this repeated overloading routine, your leg muscles gain the power and efficiency to propel u at higher speeds.
Remember: Only when the foundation of mileage is met, u can think of achieving more speed.
As with all rugged sports, perspiration is mandatory and unavoidable. The intensity of running makes it a sport that involves large amounts of fluid loss from the body. To stay at the optimal level of fitness and recovery, replenishing this loss is critically important.
Many healthcare professionals advocate drinking at least 8 glasses of water everyday for normal adults. This is the bottomline for inactive persons. Imagine the prolonged perspiration during a race. It is not difficult to imagine our body yearning for more glasses of water than usual.
On normal sedentary days, try to drink at least 8 to 12 glasses daily. To facilitate this, u can bring a water bottle or flask to your desk or workplace. Building a habit of drinking during meals or when u take a break can also be useful. The key is to tag drinking to some activities or time or place that u will never miss. For instance, if u tend to stay in front of the computer, place a water flask next to it for easy access.
On active days, u should drink more, depending on the duration of exercise and weather too. It may sound absurd to remind ourselves to drink a certain amount of water, like, wouldn't our body tell us to be thirsty? The truth is, under the conditions of fatigue and physical stress, we tend to neglect signals that our body is sending us. A good rule of thumb is to hydrate before, during and after a race or training.
A good guideline is to drink at least 500ml of water for every 1 hour of physcial activity. This can be spread into a few portions if you don't have a tolerance for such volume. For more effective hydration, u can put electrolytes into the drink. The isotonic drinks are a good source of this. This is 2 benefits, increase hydration and replenish lost body salts.
Apart from direct hydration through drinking, runners can also get a good supplement of water from diet. Fruits and vegetables do aid in providing some fluid to our bodies too. In particular, juicy ones like celery, oranges, watermelons, apples etc all make good water supplements. Put in the effort to remind yourself and hydration will come as a natural gesture to u soon!
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The purpose of carbo-loading sessions is to stock up a large reserve of energy in the body so that the runner is able to meet the high energy demands of an endurance, long duration sport. These reserves are in the form of glycogen stored in the muscles and liver. Hence, carbohydrates that can increase body stores of glycogen are preferred.
Amongst the rich spread of staple diet carbohydrates like rice, potato, bread, noodles, pasta etc, the effectiveness of each at increasing body glycogen levels actually vary. Dieticians usually compare them on a scale called Glycemic Index (GI), which is a measure of how effective a carbohydrate is at increasing blood glucose levels. A low GI would mean the food is slow to release its energy and the body is able to derive a constant source of energy from it over a longer period of time. This is exactly what marathoners or endurance sportsmen need! Among the staple carbohydrates, pasta has a fairly low GI of about 40. Other carbohydrates like potato and rice may have up to a GI of 90, which means they quickly release all their energy and cannot supply a runner with energy for long.
If it is any added bonus, pasta is easy to prepare. Just boil and add ready-made sauces of your choice. Voala! And u have a sumptuous carbo-loading session!
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When it comes to running, we can think of all forms of preparation to aid our training. Has anyone really thought of undergarment as one of the factors? Women perhaps are more knowledgeable than men in this regard. Most women who run would know the benefits of wearing a sports bra. However, less people will think of choosing a suitable pair of panties, boxers or briefs for their run. The fact is, undergarment plays an important role in enhancing our running experience. Let's take a look at some of the common runners' problems that can be prevented or lessened when u choose the right undergarment.
Nipple abrasion is a common ailment that plague long distance runners. The frequent rubbing of your t-shirt or singlet or even bra, coupled with large amounts of perspiration, may cause chafing of skin directly under the clothing. It can get quite uncomfortable and painful. To prevent this, females can pick a suitable sports bra to provide support to your breasts and limit the extent of abrasion. There really is a generous range available for females out there. The general advice is: choose comfort and light-weight. You can look for the aesthetics like colour and design when the first 2 criteria has been met. Most sports bras thesedays come in easy-to-dry material that are a mix of fabric and nylon or polyester. This is good as perspiration dries quickly in these material and helps reduce the abrasive potential of the bras. For males, taping the nipples using cloth surgical tape is the best solution against nipple abrasion. The most simple way is to tape an 'X' on each nipple. Try not to use plastic or elastic tape as these may slip off under the heavy perspiration.
Chafing is also a pain in the ass (literally for some). It usually occurs in regions where there is more contact between body parts. In between the thighs, between the butt, the armpits, the chest and the belly (if you have one) are some of the common places that are susceptible to chafing. For runners who are more chubby, you are likely to experience chafing more often. In this situation, the choice of undergarment would determine the extent of the chafing. For males, boxers are generally a no-no because of the loose flaps of cloth that might exacerbate the rubbing. Briefs that fit well with sufficient breathing ventilation is good. As long as the material is light and allows easy drying, it would increase the comfort during running. For females, pick a snug fit of underwear that is not too large or loose. This minimises excessive 'running' of the underwear during repeated hip and leg movement during your running strides. For both genders alike, g-string is definitely unacceptable for running. The 'string' would become a cutting saw under the wet and hot conditions when u run and the consequent abrasion can be quite bad.
Increasingly, runners are turning to tights as an alternative to undergarment during a race. Tights are basically body-hugging shorts or suits that limits the amount of abrasive contact between the undergarment and your skin. Some prefer tights because the smooth and elastic surface allow more fluid movement of the limbs as you run. A point to note is that tights come in all shapes and sizes. Choose a cutting that is less restraining for you. Paddings and thicker material may be inserted in some tights as well. You should assess if you're used to the feeling of wearing such tights, especially over long periods of time. Some tights are designed for cyclists, biathletes or triathletes. The seams are sewn to facilitate different movement ranges so do check with the store assistants before your purchase!
A handful of the more adventurous may choose not to wear undergarments at all. Well for these runners, the ownest really is on themselves to decide whether the benefits do outweigh the disadvantages. Depending on indivdual skin types, some people might have developed tougher skin that can stand more rubbing. So remember, choose wisely!
Quite surprisingly, no matter how much we prepare, one important thing would make or break our performance on race day... and that is our race mindset. As much as we can prepare our body to cope with the demands of running a race, our mind rules over how our body would work. The kind of thoughts and emotions that go through our mind before the race would tune you to a particular frame of mind to begin the race with.
A good way to harness the leverage that your mind provides is to envisage good things. Have an awesome attitude. Think of all the wonderful reasons. Focus on your passion for running. Here, i would like to share with you some simple yet powerful strategies that have helped me in my races.
Use mental visualization. Run through in your mind, the route you will be taking. Imagine the likely atmosphere. Think about the sensation you will go through and how will you keep yourself recharged. Envision how you will like to finish. Envision a strong, euphoric finish. Think of the roars of cheers and upbeat music that will welcome you. Think of anything that motivates you: your family, your supporters, a good drink, a nice massage or anything at all (even sex!). Mentally run through the things you have to bring for race day, the actions you will take, the pace you want to maintain and all the preparations you will do en route to finishing the race.
Talk about it. Tell friends and family about your trainings. Share your emotions. Update fellow runners and motivate each other along as you train up for the race. The more you let it out, the less anxiety will build. A talk with experienced runners would probably help dispel some worries or give u some tips too. Light hearted chats make good remedy for nervous thoughts of pre-race jitters.
Use positive affirmations. Get used to it. Immerse yourself in confidence and assurance of your own ability and training. Try to start with it as early as you can convince yourself. Repeat the process every week, every day, every opportunity you can. The key to this is to repeat it to yourself so often until it becomes a subconscious reality.
Enjoy the race, that's why you signed up in the first place! Focus on the good, like the mileage you have been building or the nice scenery around or simply congratulate yourself after you cover a milestone distance (like every 5km or something). Take it as a sight-seeing tour. Enjoy the little things... from the gentle breeze to the joy of drinking along the way, everything makes up the race experience. Look forward to the grand finishing line.
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One of the favorite snack of runners, especially for those in the South East Asian region, is bananas. Many are aware of its credibility as a power snack in sports but few really understand what bananas can do for you.
Bananas are a very convenient and beneficial source of energy and essential nutrients for the active runner. It is a powerpack of 3 sugars: glucose, fructose and sucrose. On top of that, the blend of minerals and vitamins in bananas aid the release of energy and contraction of muscles during exercise.
The potassium found in bananas provide good replenishment to those lost during exercise perspiration. It also aids hydration uptake when you drink. The vitamin C in bananas provide around 10 to 20% of the daily needs of your body. This, together with other anti-oxidants in bananas, help in protecting you from falling sick.
Vitamin B6 in bananas are a whooping 25% of daily requirement. This vitamin is key in helping the production of your body's antibodies which fights infection and keep you healthy throughout your intensive training. The production of haemoglobin, the red oxygen-carrying pigment in red blood cells, is promoted with vitamin B6 as well. This is useful because healthy red blood cells ensure good oxygen carriage to your cells to support muscular exercise. The unique blend of essential nutrients in bananas like vitamin B1, B2, B6 and B complex aids in promoting healthy nerve development and function. This improves coordination of your nervous system in general and keeps you at your tip-top condition.
Bananas contain a good source of iron too, which maintains a healthy red blood cell count. This will ensure that your blood can carry more oxygen to serve your muscles while you run. The high fibre content keeps healthy bowel movement that will leave you less prone to constipation.
Don't forget that bananas are a small and portable snack too! You can carry them where you need for an instant nutrition boost. And i'm sure bananas are cheap and easily available too! So, next time when you pass that neighbourhood supermart, why not consider grabbing a bunch of bananas for your boost in nutrition?
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