Foot Strike in 5k Running – Barefoot, mid-foot, front-foot, heel strike

21 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by in Physiology & Anatomy

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Marahon shoes

Marahon shoes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You’ve been running a while right?

OK, good. Go get an old pair of running-only shoes. Not day-to-day shoes.

Turn ‘em upside down and look where they wear out. If the heel is wearing out then you heel strike. If the bit under where your toes start is wearing out then you strike mid-foot or forefoot.

So no argument there please. I don’t care what the video analysis might say about you. The evidence is literally staring you in the face from your shoes.

Note we pretty much ALL heel strike whilst walking.

There are undoubtedly great runners who heel strike.

However if you heel strike then your foot has to roll down from the heel and onto the front of the foot before you push off. That takes time. Not a lot of time. But time nevertheless. If you heel strike you cannot escape that obvious fact. That wasted time multiplied by the number of steps you take is a LOT of wasted time. Heel striking is slower.

IT might be faster for you now. But it IS slower than it otherwise could be. It is slowing you down.

There are also other factors at play where heel striking acts as a cushioning brake as the mass of your body move from behind the heel to in front of it. This weight transfer process also take its toll on the knee. It’s probably why you get knee or hip injuries.

Fore-foot or mid-foot (flat-foot) striking requires less contact time with the ground. It more naturally has more of the weight further forwards and more naturally engages more muscles groups better. It puts a bit more strain on your calves. So you can’t change overnight without building up your calf muscles.

You’ve probably got little calf muscles as well right? Yep. That’s because you heel strike (often!). More proof.

Start to use those poxy calf muscles for midfoot running too much too soon and you WILL have all sorts of calf, soleus, achillees problems. And these can take a LONG time to heal.

It might take a year to gradually transition. At the end of that you will probably be no faster but you will be in a  good place to GET FASTER WITH LESS INJURIES.

Go for it.

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Better Fat Burning – Will This Help 5k? Duathlons? Triathlons?

21 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by in Nutrition

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English: 2-D cross-sectional view of glycogen:...

English: 2-D cross-sectional view of glycogen: A core protein of glycogenin is surrounded by branches of glucose units. The entire globular complex may contain approximately 30.000 glucose units. (Description reference: Page 12 in: Exercise physiology: energy, nutrition, and human performance By William D. McArdle, Frank I. Katch, Victor L. Katch Edition: 6, illustrated Published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2006 ISBN 0781749905, 9780781749909, 1068 pages) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lots of the stuff in our body is fuel for living. This includes fat. It’s harder to get energy out of fat than it is to get energy out of muscle glycogen. However muscle/liver glycogen is limited and in endurance events it may well run out. Then you stop. Literally stop.

So you take on board energy when you train and race but sometimes that too is not enough to perform optimally.

It is possible to train your body to better burn fat. This is great as it, simplistically, makes you thinner but it also puts further away that point where you run out of glycogen.

This probably won’t help your 5k much but the further over 1  hour your event goes the more important it becomes.

So how do you do it?

1. Eat a high fat meal BEFORE exercise. However this is only for long exercise periods of at least 90 minutes. The abundance of fat is recognised by your body and your body tries to use it more than it otherwise would. This strategy is for serious athletes only!

2. For shorter workouts eat nothing beforehand. ie make sure it was at least 2 hours since your last Low GI meal. Only use water during the exercise.

3. A longer term dietary strategy is to eat a low GL based diet. Again this makes the body metabolism shift towards using fat as a fuel source.

4. Do moderate (sweating) exercise for extended periods. If you do too much speedwork then the energy required for the speedwork is too great and that can ONLY be quickly got from muscle/liver glycogen. So the longer/moderate stuff lets your body practice drip feeding itself, partly, from your fat stores.

5. Do muscle building exercise (not body building!! but you can if you want to) ie fast running. Bigger, stronger more efficient muscles burn more energy whilst at rest. They do not necessarily burn the energy within the muscles themselves they also burn fat.

Remember one big problem with diets and exercise is that people do not re-fuel themselves properly.

  • What’s the point of doing a massive 3 hour run and then not re-fuelling properly. If you don’t take on board enough carbs water and protein then the muscles will not repair themselves and will not ‘fill up’ with energy.
  • What’s the point of going on a diet and cutting out protein so that your muscles waste away? As soon as you start eating again the extra energy is stored straight away as fat!!
  • What’s the point of not drinking enough water, other than being bad for you, as soon as you drink water again you put that ‘weight’ back on!

So, some of the above points appear contradictory. Which is kind of true.

However what it is really telling you is that you need a balanced exercise regime AND a balanced dietary regime. You need to do long runs AND fast runs. You need to eat protein, carbs and fat (and water, not too much fat please!). 5k training is a great way to balance the exercise and, for the sake of argument, a low GL diet (look at the food packaging’s labels, it’s on there) is a good enough one for the food. To lose weight quickly try the Atkins diet but the lack of carbs in it will cause you problems with life and exercise soon enough!

7 Training Ideas That Changed My 5k Running Forever

21 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by in Nutrition, Physiology & Anatomy

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Cover of "Run Fast: How to Beat Your Best...

Cover via Amazon

1. Periodisation

 

Understanding the balance between training hard and recovering.

 

2. Training Load

 

Measuring training hard and recovering!

 

3. Training by Pace

 

If you want to run fast at some point you have to have periods when you train fast. You train ‘fast’ most effectively by pace. Anything up to an hour I train by pace. You need a device which can tell you how fast you are running.

 

4. Training by Heart Rate

 

Sometimes you have to hold yourself back. It’s not perfect but training by heart rate is great for anything over 40 minutes. You need a device which can tell you your heart rate.

 

5. Bodily Systems

 

The body does not have a ‘speed system’ which you can train. There are LOTS of processes which you have to train to get faster. These processes all respond to differing stimuli. Ie training at differing levels of intensity for differing periods of time.

 

6. Training Effectiveness / Tapering

 

Building up an endurance base takes time and stays a long time. Speed takes relatively ‘little’ time to acquire (assuming you have the capacity to do so) and is more quickly lost. Knowing the most effective training day is about 10 days before your race. Understanding that tapering allows your body to recover and respond properly to all that hard work you have been doing – whilst maintaining its race readiness/freshness.

 

7. Intervals

 

If you want to do 5k faster you could just practice doing 5k lots and lots. It would eventually work but intervals would get you faster, sooner. You need to practice getting faster and faster over ever increasing time periods…starting from one minute. Personally I incorporate intervals into ALL workouts with the exception of extensive endurance runs in the winter.

 

(8. Must do better) – gym work, hill work, stretch, plyometrics, diet, hydration.

 

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Likey, Likey … Polar FT60

21 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by in Gadgets & Gear

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This is sweet!

We love the new Polar FT60 . As you can see the display is very in-vogue, angular looking and perhaps more importantly to the stats obsessed purist….the screen are is quite big. Lots of easy-to-read information.

It has some nice colours too! Even in black if purple is too much for you.

It’s not cheap but I reckon you might just be able to find one on Amazon for under £100 if you are lucky, if not then at least somewhere close to that.

If you are looking at weight loss then heart rate based training is the way to go for most people. The FT60 does that and also builds in some nice features like Training Load to tell you when to have a rest day or when to have a hard day.

If you like Polar and are looking for more of a running watch that has GPS/pace/speed information then have a look at the new Polar RCX3. Super-sweet. Possible review later this year – to follow.

 

The manufacturer’s key points are listed below:

STAR Training Programme lets you select personalised fitness targets and then suggests different training times and intensities to maximise your results

Smart Calories lets you know exactly how many calories you’ve burned

Own Zone guides you to train at the right intensity

Fitness Test tells you exactly how your fitness is developing

Training Load helps you find the perfect balance between rest and training

Available now for RRP £149.50 in stores

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Top 10 running tips for 5k and parkrun

17 Friday May 2013

Posted by in PB or Race Tactics, Physiology & Anatomy

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Tongue n' Cheek

Tongue n’ Cheek (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Top 10 5k and parkrun running tips. Running myths debunked!

Maybe you have a few to add to the mix ;-)

1. Hydration: Not really that important. The weight of the extra water in your body will slow you down. As evidence look a the tiny water bottles that tour de France riders use in the 100++ mile stages. They use most of that to spray over their heads on hot days to keep themselves cool. Also the water bottles are normally sponsored by big banks.

2. Shoes: Big shoes are best for getting a PB as they help you bounce more so lengthening your stride and creating/giving you extra energy.

3. Sprint at the start. You are not as tired at the start of a 5k race so it never hurts to sprint off really quickly (kids are very good at this and usually win).

4. Breathing: Your body exhales lots of un-used oxygen. Save time and energy by holding your breath for 3 or 4 seconds longer than you normally do each breath, that way using the oxygen you already have in your lungs.

5. If  you have kids you will have noticed they are hyperactive very soon after coloured sweets. Translate that effect into your running by having a few packs of M&Ms, or similar, before you race. About 3 minutes before the race starts is best.

6. Ignore advice to kick your heels up as you run. Logically you should keep your feet as close to the gorund as possible for longer races. That way you save huge amounts of energy by NOT having to lift them up too far from the ground.

7. (See also point 2). Try to make your stride as long as possible. That way you will get there quicker.

8. If you want to do a really fast 5k the best training is to run 90 minutes 3 times a week at a very easy pace. ie just faster than walking pace. do NOT practice running fast as that causes too much damage to your body which is hard to repair.

9. You get most of your energy from sugar and therefore you should cut out things like protein and complex carbohydrates from your diet. Most top runners have NO fat in their diet, cut all that out too. Focus on sugars. Remember a Mars a day helps you work, rest and play? They said it because it was true.

10. The best times to train are the 2 days before your race or parkrun. Training on these days significantly boots muscle memory so, come Parkrun-Saturday, you will not have forgotten how to run.

Any other top tips? Share below

Please IF IN ANY DOUBT this is all tongue-in-cheek!!!! Start on my home page for some proper running advice.

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Qualifying for the Hyde Park GB AG Team (Triathlon – Sprint & Standard)

05 Sunday May 2013

Posted by in triathlon

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English: Alistair Brownlee wins the Hyde Park ...

English: Alistair Brownlee wins the Hyde Park Triathlon,August 2011 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Well I looked a while back at the easiest route to qualify for Hyde Park. Me, and very many of you made the most basic mistake of leaving it too late to apply for ANY qualifying race. Consequently not getting the chance to even attempt to qualify. I did manage to get a place but certainly not from my favoured event.

So where are we now?

Looking at the male sprint:
The number of people SO FAR registered to try to qualify are: 45-49 (57 athletes), 40-44 (54), 35-39 (47) and so it goes on. Such that MOST age groups are going to leave some people struggling to qualify even if they have achieved the 115% time. The situation is not quite so competitive in the women’s age groups and fairly similar in the Standard distance.

good Luck. You’ll probably need at least an element of that to get in.

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European ETU Long Distance and sprint Duathlon medals at the weekend. Well done all.

22 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by in Duathlon, PB or Race Tactics

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F60

F60 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Elite Great Britain Team Medallists

Elite women
Gold Lucy Gossage 02:58.55
Elite men
5 Oliver Mott 02:43.58
11 Matt Moorhouse 02:46.46
Elite junior women
2 Georgina Schwiening 01:03.15
4 Kate Curran 01:03.29
5 Leah Peploe 01:04.28
Elite junior men
2 Liam Lloyd 00:54.30
6 Calum Johnson 00:54.49
20 Jimmy Kershaw 00:57.40
Great Britain Age-Group Team Medallists (Provisional) 
ETU POWERMAN EUROPEAN LONG DISTACNE DUATHLON CHAMPIONSHIPS
Gold (3)
M40-44  Christopher Dettmar
F50-54   Wendy Gooding
F60-64   Elspeth Knott
Silver (2)
M40-44  Carl Ferri
M65-69  Geoff Russell
Bronze(1)
F50-54   Boo Alder
ETU POWERMAN EUROPEAN SPRINT DUATHLON CHAMPIONSHIPS
Gold (11)
M16-19  Gareth Smith
F25-29   India Lee
F30-34   Mathilde Pauls
F35-39   Fran Bungay
F40-44   Sue Walker
M40-44  Alan Murchison
F45-49   Jacqui Phillips
M50-54  Richard Parker
F55-59   Sandra Powell-Bevan
M60-64  Barry Jameson
M80+      Brian Forster
Silver (6)
M16-19  Matthew O’Connor
F30-34   Charlotte Harris
F35-39   Christine Bertram
F60-64   Sharon Bardsley
M60-64  Dave Littlemore
M65-69  Michael Smallwood
Bronze (9)
M16-19  Harry Pink
F20-24   Eloise du Luart
F30-34   Erica Martin
M30-34  Peter Hawkins
F35-39   Jennifer Spillane
M45-49  Craig Dyce
M55-59  Roy Flanagan
M70-74  Bob Thomas
M75-79  Maurice Young
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How do I improve my 5k parkrun time?

19 Friday Apr 2013

Posted by in Training & Interval Training

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parkrun 55

parkrun 55 (Photo credit: Paul Holloway)

I was recently asked “How do I improve my 5k parkrun time?”. Unfortunately ‘it depends’ is going to form a large part of the answer.

Many people reading this will be shouting “train more!”. Which of course is true.

But what kind of training is best (A: it depends on your fitness etc etc)

What level you are currently at and your recent training is also going to make a big difference on what is the NEXT effective thing to do.

And it depends on when you want to improve it by. Today is Thursday so trying to improve it this Saturday will require virtually no training.

Look at my home page for tips on how to improve my parkrun time this coming weekend.

If you are looking to improve your time in a couple of weeks then you should be looking at tapering down from what you have been doing.

If you are looking at improving your time in 4-6 weeks time then you should be looking at fast intervals and tempo runs followed by a careful taper.

If you are looking at a 3 month time horizon then you need to follow a 3 month training plan.

Something along those lines would be good…

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Garmin Heart Rates Spikes, Dropouts, Soft Straps, Static and Wet or Hard Straps

04 Thursday Apr 2013

Posted by in Gadgets & Gear

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Heart rate and power

Heart rate and power (Photo credit: samwebster)

What! A heart rate of 280bpm, that can’t be right can it? Oh hang on a minute now there’s no reading at all.

Most of you have been there with Garmin HR straps. It’s annoying when the readings are wrong especially if you train by heart rate.

There are various solutions out there. Some of them are sound others not.

Firstly there could be a fault with your STRAP and/or your heart rate SENSOR / POD. I think that is unlikely in most cases.

Secondly if you have ever used a Garmin HARD strap you will probably have never found any problems. So, IMHO, that shows that the problem probably does not lie with the watch. If, like me, you may have bought a POLAR soft strap to which the GARMIN POD fits you will probably found the same level of HR spikes and dropouts in similar circumstances. Therefore this suggests to me that there is nothing inherently uniquely wrong with Garmin’s design.

It’s just that soft straps for some reason are more prone to the sort fo behaviour we are talking about. Why? If you look at the reverse of the strap you will see that the smooth ‘rubber’ contact area may be smaller on a soft strap.

Yesterday I had a turbo session indoors. Nothing too hard but a bit sweaty nevertheless. Immediately afterwards I went for a slow run in the freezing cold. Within 5 minutes I had incorrect HR readings. I had stopped sweating and some of the sweat already there had dried out. This to me VERY strongly suggests that the problem is related to the contact between the body/chest and the strap.

In really cold or really dry weather you may well find you are more prone to spikes. This could be because both hot and cold weather can have less humidity (humidity might be a factor). Or it could also be the case that when really cold you might not sweat much or when really hot and you are not trying much the sweat very quickly evaporates.

Either way a wet strap helps.

So if you lick your strap before any exercise you will probably find an improvement.

Furthermore if you thoroughly wet the strap, you may find yet more improvement.

Garmin recommend that you use medical grade gel. Let’s face it few of us will ever do this. But if you have let me know if that fixes the problem.

Well 30 minutes after posting the article I got this from Cy Gearing on FB:

Cy Gearing :: I use the garmin soft strap and use a gel from amazon. I don’t sweat a great deal so had issues, but been using the gel for 3 months now without dropouts. It cost the vast sum of £3.05 for 2 x100ml bottles and you need so little that I’m sure they will last at least a year!

So this I think backs up my assertion that it is a contact problem rather than static or faulty devices. Although Cy has obviously found that gel makes a significant improvement (well if 100% counts as significant!). Amazon here we come!

However static might be a cause. You need two different materials for static to happen. This could be different shorts and shirt. Or it could be the soft strap and your shirt rubbing together. It might also be linked to static from body hair. I’m not convinced about this explanation but it is possible. I still have problems when ‘topless’ on my turbo. Static absolutely CANNOT be the cause in that scenario. Although it might be a contributory factor in other scenarios.

Summary: I started off by saying you could have a faulty unit. Most likely the best approach is to thoroughly wet your strap and ensure it is snugly fitted in the right position. Or use a hard strap!

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