Beginner Runners: How to Buy a Running Shoe

Buying a Good Running Shoe

Comfort should be the main determinant when choosing a running shoe. Go for a dedicated running shoe, rather than a cross trainer. Cross trainers don’t have the appropriate cushioning and stability needed if you are running regularly.

The Best Brand

The best running shoe is the one that’s comfortable for you. Don’t be swayed by brand recognition, or the nice colours. Go on what feels comfortable. There are heaps of different brands, and a number of models in each brand’s range. Brands such as Asics, Misuno, New Balance, Brooks, Saucony and Fila all have good ranges of running shoes. If you have a broad foot, try New Balance, or go for a men’s shoe in another brand. Brooks are often recommended by podiatrists if you have orthotics, as they tend to be a bit deeper in the heel than other shoes,

Getting a Good Fit

Make sure you get a good fit with your running shoe. If there’s anything about the fit that you’re unsure of when you’re in the shop, I can promise you, it will be magnified once you’re out running.

Allow plenty of time to buy a running shoe. Don’t take anyone with you who will be impatient to get going.

A running shoe shopping expedition should definitely be a child free occasion.

Don’t be afraid to make the shoe sales person earn their keep. Try on as many shoes as you feel you need to, and ask as many questions as you like.
Do take socks that you will be running in, and any orthotics you might wear inside your shoes. You need to try your shoes on with these on board.

Shop after 4pm

Shop for shoes at the end of the day, when your feet are likely to be at their biggest. As your feet become hotter and more compressed when you spend time walking on them, they will usually be half to one shoe size bigger at the end of the day. When you run, the heat and compression will have the same effect.

Buy bigger than your dress shoe size

Be careful to buy shoes that are big enough. You should have about a thumb’s width between the front of your shoe and your longest toe (not necessarily your big toe) when you are standing on that foot – you therefore wont be able to test this properly yourself. You should be able to play the piano with your toes. Overall, running shoes should be a looser fit than dress shoes, and you’ll probably find you’re at least a half size bigger in running shoes. Width wise, the shoe should not feel tight, but nor should it feel uncomfortably loose.

The heel

The heel should fit snuggly into the shoe, but it should not be too tight. You should be able to slip the heel out of your shoe when it is laced up, but not tied. When you tie your shoe, use the heel lock technique, which will help to make your heel secure in the shoe. You’ll feel a bit of heel movement, but not too much.

Try It Out

Running in the shoe before you buy it is super important. The shoe could feel very different when you’re running to how it feels when you are standing still. Ideally, the shop will have a treadmill to run on, or you’ll be able to run outside in the shoe. If not, make sure your run around the shop – don’t worry – the other customers will be impressed that you look like you know what you’re doing. If possible, run downhill, but if not, stab the ball of your foot into the ground, and see how much movement there is – if your toes hit the front of the shoe, try re-lacing, but it might mean the shoe is not the right fit.

How Much Should You pay?

Don’t scrimp, but do buy within your budget. A more expensive shoe is not necessarily going to be a better fit for your foot. I always start at the cheaper end of the range first, and work my way up if I need to.

Beware The Sizzle

Some running shoe stores will pop you on a treadmill and look at you run, before advising you on a shoe. This is a great way to figure out what might suit, as long as the shoe salesperson knows what they are doing. In the nicest possible way, you should sus out if they know what they are on about – ask them what they are looking for, how long the store has had the equipment etc. Sometimes these things are lots of sizzle without much sausage. The same goes for heat sensor type plates you stand on to determine which shoe suits you best. Your gait and foot placement when you’re running may have little similarity to what your foot imprint looks like when you are standing still.

You may find the shoe salesperson talks to you about excessive pronation. If they do feel you excessively pronate, my advice would be to go to a good physiotherapist or podiatrist, rather than rely on a shoe to correct the problem (if in fact there is a problem).

Offset

Another thing some running shoe sales people are keen on is a low offset. The offset is the difference between the height of the sole of the shoe at your heel and at the ball of your foot. The theory is that if you have a lower offset, ie your heel and the front of your foot are closer to the same height off the ground, the more likely you are to land on your forefoot, or even toes. It sounds a bit counter-intuitive, but have a go at running with no shoes on, and you’ll probably find you’re running on the balls of your feet. (I don’t recommend barefoot running by the way, especially if you’re not used to it).

Apparently, the theory goes, because elite runners run on the balls of their feet (their forefoot), then we all should. I have a problem with this theory on a number of fronts. The major problem I have is that we are not all elite runners. Don’t know about you, but I’m never going to be an elite runner – no Olympic qualifying times for me. I don’t train like an elite runner, I don’t have the strength of an elite runner, I don’t have the time (or money) to spend on recovery that an elite runner has. Therefore, why does it make sense for me to try to run like an elite runner?

That’s the first thing. Secondly, not all elite runners run on their forefoot, and those that do, don’t do it all of the time, so the theory is based on an incorrect premise in the first place.

With the movement towards lower offset shoes and barefoot running, I have noticed, as have a number of physios I’ve spoken to, an increase in the number of calf and Achilles tendon injuries, due to greater forces being placed in that area. I won’t bore you with any more of the detail, suffice is to say, don’t be talked into a lower offset shoe.

Unless specifically recommended otherwise by a podiatrist or physio, you should have no LESS than an 8mm drop between the height of your heel and the forefoot. Some brands such as Saucony have the offset written on the top of the shoe’s inner sole. There is a time and place for running barefoot, and running in minimalist shoes, but the time is most likely not when you’re first starting out running.

Where Should I Buy Running Shoes?

Specialist running shoe stores are the best bet to buy running shoes when you first start out. You can be sure you’ll get good advice from people who know what they are talking about. Here are a few you could try.

Northside Runners in Crows Nest and Manly specialises in running shoes. They have a good range, and will give you good advice. They’ll let you run outside in your shoe, and often have shoes below recommended retail price.

Running Science in Rozelle will look at you running on a treadmill before fitting you with a shoe – great especially if you are having injury problems.

Footpoint at Mosman are also great for getting a good fit with your running shoe.

The Runners Shop in Randwick

Sydney Running Centre in Edgecliff

Footlocker offer a money back guarantee on the fit of your shoe, however I’m not so up on their fitting capability.

If you’re happy with the fit of your current shoe, you might like to try these sites to make your next purchase. Remember to factor shipping into the cost when comparing to Australian shoe stores. Frequently, on shore options turn out to be the best.

http://www.amazon.com/

http://www.wiggle.com/

http://www.runningwarehouse.com/

http://www.eastbay.com/

How frequently should you replace your shoes?

The most obvious signs of wear and tear on a shoe show on the outside- they get tatty, dirty- and let’s face it, smelly -but this isn’t going to have much of an effect on your running or risk of injury. What might increase your risk of injury, is when the midsole, the thick layer of EVA foam that cushions impact, wears out.

As shoes get older, their ability to absorb shock decreases. There is a rapid decrease in shock absorption in the first 80-100km. Then the decrease tapers off, to about a 20% loss of cushioning by about 800 kms of running. It doesn’t decrease much after this.

What does losing the cushioning effect of your shoes mean to your running and your risk of injury? As it turns out, your body adapts to various surfaces by changing the degree of leg stiffness to help absorb shock. As your shoe deteriorates, your body adapts to the changing conditions, by altering leg muscle activation. So when you run in a shoe that’s got several hundred kilometres under its belt, your leg muscles tend to become looser to compensate for the loss of shock absorption from your shoes.

What does this all mean?

Firstly, a bit like a new car loses a large portion of its value as soon as you take it out of the showroom, so a running shoe will lose a lot of the cushioning it is going to lose, within the first few weeks to two months of wear. This is why sometimes a shoe will feel great in the shop, but very quickly becomes a no-goer. Take notice of how a shoe feels on your foot after about 100 kms – if you like it, that’s the shoe to go for next time.

For me, that means that buying a running shoe to correct biomechanical imperfections such as overpronation, flat feet, etc is not the most effective way of correcting the problem. If the cushioning of the shoe is going to deteriorate quickly, how can it continue to correct for a biomechanical deficiency in the same way it did when you bought the shoe? A better option would be to see a physio or podiatrist who can have a good look at what’s going on, and recommend orthotics (and exercises) to correct the problem if needed. (Don’t get me started on shoe salespeople who look at your feet in a standing position and recommend a shoe to correct “over pronation” – what your foot does when you are standing still and what it does when you are running are often completely different, and we all need a degree of pronation when we plant our foot to aid with shock absorption)

If you haven’t run for a while, and you’re planning to do so in the old pair of running shoes in the back of your cupboard which were five years old when you retired them, you should probably plan a trip to the running shoe shop. Whilst your body will adapt to the surface it is running on, a pair of legs that haven’t run for a while could do with starting out on a bit of cushioning.

5 FAQ’s From Beginner Runners

Over many years of coaching beginner runners, we’ve noticed a few questions come up time and again. We’ve put together the top 5 most frequently asked questions by women at the start of their running journey.

What’s the difference between jogging & running?

Well, there’s no difference really! Both require you to place one foot on the ground, become airborne, then place the other foot on the ground, and repeat, and repeat, and repeat….

The term ‘jogging’ was coined in the 1970’s during the first running boom to refer to slow running, I guess to help people describe the pace they were running at. Much easier to say “I jog” rather than “I run, but pretty slowly”. Other than that, I can’t really tell you how the term jogging came about, but I can promise you, jogging, running, there’s no difference. If you jog, you run.

How much should a beginner runner train?

It really depends on what you’re training for and your goals, and also what level of fitness you are at when you start training.

We advise people on our Learn to Run course to get out for a walk and run session, three times a week for six weeks. Any more when you’re first starting out, and you increase your risk of injury, any less, and you are not placing enough stress on your body to see any improvement. The important thing to remember is to be consistent. Running three times one week, then only once the next, won’t see you getting the results you want.

As we progress our runners through the Learn to Run course, we increase the amount they run for, and decrease the amount they walk for in each session. How much running and walking is very much an individual thing, so we design training programs specifically for each person on the course.

Once you’ve established a good training pattern, and are able to run for about 30 minutes without stopping, you can think about changing up your training and perhaps running more frequently, extending the length of time you run for one of your runs, or taking on some more intense interval training. Again, it’s an individual thing.

How do I stop myself getting out of breath?

The secret is…………….sorry, there is no real secret breathing method. There are a few methods people talk about to help your breathing, such as ‘in through your nose and out through your mouth” or “breathe in accordance with your strides” but there is no scientific evidence to suggest that a specific method is the correct or best one.

You might feel like you can’t get enough air into your lungs, but unless you have a lung disease, you’re going to be getting more oxygen into your lungs than you can actually use. It’s your body’s ability to transport oxygen into the working muscles that counts, and that will improve with training – for example, you’ll develop a better network of blood capillaries to deliver oxygen from your blood to your muscles.

So don’t worry too much about how you breathe. The way to stop yourself getting so out of breath is to run at a pace that feels comfortable for you,but fast enough to get you just a little bit puffed. (You should still be able to talk in sentences though). Once you become fitter, your body will be better able to utilise the oxygen you take into your body by breathing, and you’ll be able to run without feeling so out of breath.

There is something you can do, though, which helps keep your upper body relaxed and ‘massages’ some of your internal organs, and that’s making sure you breathe with your diaphragm rather than your chest and ribcage. To do this requires you to breathe low by allowing your abdomen to expand as you inhale and return as you exhale, rather than lift your chest and ribcage, which can cause tension in the upper body and upset your natural running style. This is something you can practice whilst you’re at rest, or doing some very low level activity. By all means, practice it whilst you’re running, but it can be pretty hard to change your breathing technique whilst you’re exerting yourself, so don’t be too hard on yourself if you’re not “getting it”

What should I eat before I run?

Great question, and there are many answers, partly because there are so many types of food you can eat and partly because everyone reacts differently to food intake prior to exercise. The key is to work out what’s best for YOU via trial and error. Some people don’t tolerate any food, whilst others like to have something in their tummy and can handle it. If you get a stitch, or feel a bit crook in the tummy in a training session, make sure you make a note of that, and also what you ate and how long before the session you ate it. That way you’ll be able to track down the offending food, and establish a good pre-training eating pattern that works for you.

One of the key points to know is that you don’t actually need to take in any food up to several hours prior to running, as your body has plenty of energy in the form of stored fat, stored glucose (known as glycogen), and glucose circulating in the blood.

Whatever your time period is without food, the types to have are those that are easily digestible such as a banana, or a piece of toast.

How do I avoid injury?

Running places fairly heavy loads onto our bodies, so it’s important to implement a sensible training plan which progresses you fast enough to get fitter, but slowly enough to allow you to build strength where it’s needed. Some people seem to be more injury prone than others, but often I find those people who are “injury prone” are the same people who go at running like a bull at a gate, running too hard and too much. Whilst there definitely is a risk of running related injury, you can do much to reduce that risk considerably. And the upside to all this, is that we gain huge benefits in the form of mental well-being and cardiovascular fitness from running.
Running can simply make you feel good!!

So, how do you prevent injury to allow good, consistent training?

Most running related injuries result from overloading some part of your body, so we need to make sure there is a gradual build up in your running. How often per week, how intense it is, plus factors such as terrain, surface, body mechanics, and footwear, all come into play. Strength, stability, and flexibility also play a role, so it’s important to incorporate a short but regular programme into your routine that covers these aspects.

Being under the care and guidance of a professional coach, particularly when you first start running, can go a long way to helping to avoid injury. Sometimes, beginners can feel pressured by well-meaning friends and family to go a bit too hard too soon.

We’ve found over the eight years we’ve been coaching true running novices, that it’s always better to be a little bit conservative. You need to develop strength in muscles, tendons and ligaments before you can push yourself a bit more in the huffing and puffing department!! If you want to make running a part of a long term fitness strategy, make sure you don’t overdo it.

We love supporting and motivating beginner runners at the start of their running journey. Being a part of the final session of our Learn to Run courses, and seeing the excitement and satisfaction gained by our runners when they complete their 30 minute run, is one of the most rewarding parts of being a running coach!

Find out how you can join our next Learn to Run course.

learn to run

Top 5 Easiest Christmas Recipes

Quick and Easy Recipes Make Christmas Cooking A Breeze

I had that sinking feeling that every mother gets earlier tonight when my 8 year old produced a note to tell me the kids were having a morning tea picnic the day after tomorrow, and could the boys bring something savory.

I always imagine my kids trudging along to these occasions, head down, dragging their feet, knowing they’ll be the only ones offering a plate of vegetable sticks and hummus. So, determined to make this morning tea a memorable one for said 8 year old, I hunted around my website and found … Paprika and Parmesan Biscuits!!

I’ve collected a few recipes from my wonderful clients over the years, so I thought I’d share some of the easiest and yummiest (and Christmassy-est) with you.

Here are my top 5 easiest Christmas recipes.

Watermelon Salad

A truly delicious salad, just perfect for Christmas (as long as it’s not rainy and cold as it has a habit of being in Sydney)

Paprika and Parmesan Biscuits

When you want something other than vege sticks and hummus

Watermelon Fruit Popsicles

Awesomely refreshing, and look fantastic

Simplest Ice Cream Recipe Ever

Coffee, Berry, Coffee, Chili Choc, Vanilla and Pine Lime. All whipped up in a couple of minutes!

Yoghurt Pikelets

Not strictly speaking for Christmas, but great for the summer

school holidays when you have hoards of hungry kids around.

Swallowing Flies When You’re Running

We’ve all been there. Running along happily, breathing through your mouth, or perhaps having a chat with a fellow runner, and wham! A disgusting flying creature decides to take a closer look at your mouth. Think about the poor fly!!

We got to talking about flies last night after a particularly warm, fly infested session, and what actually happened to the fly after it entered your body.

How long would it survive? Where does it actually go. I’ve always assumed we swallowed them, but someone suggested we are inhaling them, which sounds reasonable. Sometimes it seems as if your mouth is a vacuum when you’re running and breathing hard. Watch out any suckers that get in it’s way! Must be pretty scary being sucked into a dark smelly tunnel with no chance of escape.

Inhaling or Swallowing?

I’d always assumed that when a fly went into my mouth, my epiglottis would close over my larynx (which leads to the lungs), and I’d just swallow it. It would then fly around a little bit on the way down to a painful death at the hands of the hydrochloric acid in my stomach. Serves it right, I reckon. It’s disgusting swallowing a fly!
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But thinking about it a little bit more, it’s quite possible the fly is inhaled. They dart into your mouth when you are least expecting it. That means your brain doesn’t know that it should be getting the mechanisms in your mouth ready to swallow. The epiglottis will be open, allowing you to breath whilst you’re running. Closing the epiglottis and performing the action of swallowing, requires the activity of about 30 different muscles. Even though they activate in less than a second, unless your brain knows to signal to these muscles to swallow, anything that’s sucked into your mouth unexpectedly is likely to head down your larynx, at least for a short while.

Will An Inhaled Fly Go Into Your Lungs?

It’s not very likely that the fly will get very far. The far more likely scenario is that you’ll cough like crazy (in fact you might feel like you’re coughing your lungs right up). The offending fly will then be coughed into your mouth along with a bit of mucus which has entombed the fly in order to stop it from proceeding down the larynx, and then you’ll swallow it. Much the same as would happen if you had a piece of food “go down the wrong way”. Your body’s cough reflex will help you to get it out of your airways so that you can breathe freely again.

If you’re sure that the fly’s gone down your windpipe, and you don’t see it come out again when you cough, it’s much more likely that it has come out into your mouth and you’ve swallowed it. It’s not like you’re going to cough it up, open up your mouth, and see it fly away free again (only to bug the next unsuspecting runner who comes along).

How Long Will A Fly Live For Inside You?

I have no idea on this one, but I have seen someone perform a circus act where they swallowed a live gold fish, vomited it back up and it was still alive. Absolutely gross, and probably too much information, but I think it means the fly would probably live for at least a little while inside you before it died. Eventually it will go the way of all good waste products, out to Bondi, which for those of you not in the know, is where a large percentage of the sewerage generated by those living in our fine city of Sydney is treated before being dumped into the ocean.

So your fly, will eventually become a swim!!

Does Muscle Weigh More Than Fat?

A kilo of muscle weighs the same as a kilo of fat, or a kilo of feathers for that matter. In spite of what you might hear bandied about the place, muscle does not weigh more than fat.

Because muscle is more dense than fat, a kg of muscle takes up less room than fat – think feathers compared to steel. So a cm3 of muscle will weigh more than a ckm3 of fat.

Losing Fat and Gaining Muscle

Many weight loss articles, fitness trainers, and the like will advise you not to look at the scales too much if you are wanting to lose weight. Instead you should focus on how your feel generally. Whether you have more energy, do your clothes fit better, and I agree, these are great measures of whether or not an exercise program is effective.

However, if your goal is to lose weight, then you need to know how much you weigh, otherwise you’ll never know if you’ve reached your goal.

Part or the reasoning behind the “no scale policy” is that “muscle weighs more than fat” or more correctly, muscle takes up less room than fat. The theory goes, as you lose fat through exercise and portion control, and gain muscle through strength training, you could actually put on weight, because, well-muscle weighs more than fat, right?

Here’s the thing. You have to be doing an awful lot of heavy weight training to put on much muscle bulk, particularly if you are female. If you are new to weight training, and you really work out hard in the weights room (I’m talking lifting low repetition, heavy weight – anywhere between 1 and 6 reps being the maximum you could knock out for a given weight) and you keep that up, consistently, a minimum of 3 times per week for a year, with the appropriate variations and progressions in your lifting program, you might, just might, put on 12kgs of muscle.

That’s the equivalent of about 1 kg of muscle gain per month. A healthy weight loss schedule is considered to be half a kg per week, roughly 2 kg per month. So, whilst it might be comforting to think that the reason you’re not losing weight is because you’re laying down so much muscle, the truth is probably that you’re not losing as much body fat as you think.

Even if you are lifting like Atlas, and laying down a kilo of dense muscle per month, if your weight stays the same, it means either you’re not losing more than 1kg of body fat per month, or you are retaining a lot of fluid.

If you don’t have a lot of body fat to lose, say under 10kg, you might be perfectly happy with losing a kg of body fat per month, and putting on a kg of muscle per month – keeping your weight at the same level. As muscle is denser than fat, that is, it doesn’t take up as much room as fat, you will most likely look and feel slimmer, and your clothes will fit better. Happy days.

But, if you know you’ve been overdoing it on the eating front for quite a while, and you’re 10kg + heavier than you were back in the day, be sure you understand that you will actually need to see the numbers on the scale go down, to lose that body fat. All that body fat is not going to “turn into muscle”.

Did you know…

A great way to lose body fat is to run? Well, that is if you want to run for about an hour a day, every day of the week. That’ll see you lose your half a kg per week. I never recommend exercise alone for weight loss. It really is at least 80% about what you eat. Exercising is awesome however, for improving your mental well being, which is so important in getting your head around reigning in poor eating habits.

In Summary

To lose body fat, you’ll need to do more aerobic exercise (the sort that makes you puff a bit) some intense training – the sort that makes you huff and puff a lot, some resistance training – using your own body weight or resistance bands, free weights or machines (my least favourite option). And you’ll need to take in fewer calories. So, nothing different to what you already know really.

7 Strategies for Running in Hot Weather

I love running in hot weather, but I have to admit, the last couple of days here in Sydney have taken me somewhat by surprise. If you’re not used to running in hot weather, it can certainly take a lot out of you. One session in the heat the other day was particularly tough – I was trying to maintain a pace based on a cooler weather time trial!! I just didn’t realise how ill prepared my body was for the heat.

Spring time in Sydney can pose a few problems for adapting to hot weather. It’s not unusual to have 10-15 degree (C) fluctuations in temperatures from one day to the next. The temperature for the Sydney Marathon, run in September, has ranged from 20-33 degrees in the last few years. And the problem with getting 30+ degree days in spring, is that we haven’t had time to acclimatise ourselves to the hot weather.

Why It’s Harder to Run in Hot Weather

Our normal core temperature is around 37 degrees. This varies slightly between individuals, with the time of day, and the stage of the menstrual cycle. Your core temperature also increases when you are pregnant (you have that living internal heater inside you!).

Once the body’s core temperature reaches about 38.9 degrees C, your performance, both in training and in racing, will begin to decline quite rapidly. The central govenor theory, explains why this happens.

Briefly, once your core temperature reaches 38.9 C, your body can’t cool itself properly. Blood starts to be diverted to the skin to help it keep cool, which of course, decreases the amount of blood going to the working muscles – you only have so much blood to go around! Less blood to the muscles means less oxygen to the muscles, which results in a rapid decline in performance. Take your core temperature up another degree or so, and your brain is also triggered to inhibit the recruitment of muscle fibres, to stop you from doing yourself damage, so whilst it feels like you’re working harder, you actually are not working harder. Fewer muscle fibres are actually firing.

If you add humidity into the equation, you’re really going to find it tough. You can read more about running in humidity here.

You Feel the Effects of Heat More as You Get Older

Heat can have a much bigger effect on you once you hit 40. A study of 85 cyclists aged 20-70 showed that the older subjects in the study sweated less than the younger once. The diminished heat loss through sweat was greater in the older age groups, leveling out at the 40 -44 years age group. The researchers found that

“aging may have a larger influence on whole-body heat loss capacity than the fitness level or specific physical characteristics of the individual.”

Yipee!!!

The research found the difference between the age groups become more pronounced, the longer the exercise bout.

Acclimatising to the Heat

5 days of exercising in hot conditions will be enough time to see some dramatic improvements in your body’s main cooling mechanism – sweating. The acclimatisation continues for upwards of two weeks.

If you live in a climate where the temperatures are pretty steady for weeks at a time, then you’re sweet, but if your temperatures fluctuate considerably, and race day is forecast to be a hot one, you can acclimatise by running in more layers of clothing for a few weeks prior to the race, or running inside and turning up the heat. You could also run in the middle of the day when the temperature is hottest, if possible.

Other Strategies

Adjust your training and racing pace

Roughly, for every 5.5 C increase in environmental temperature, you can expect to slow down by about 6-10 seconds per km, depending on your age, and how well your body’s cooling mechanisms work. Take this into account when setting goal race times, and training paces.

For example, if you’re scheduled to run 10*500’s at 5km race pace, and your 5km pace is around 5 mins/km, in cool conditions, your 500m repeats would be done in 2 min 30. If you’re running in 30 degree heat, and you are not used to it, you should be aiming to cover the 500m in 2 min 40 – that allows for you to be slowing down by 20 seconds per km. If you don’t adjust your times at the start, you’re likely not to be able to complete the full session. Everyone reacts to hot conditions differently, and you may find you don’t need to slow down that much, or perhaps more, so use this as a guide, monitor how you feel, and adjust accordingly.

Choose your goal races around the temperature

If you’re keen on a marathon or half marathon, choose a race in a location and/or time of year when it is likely to be cool – around 15-18 degrees is ideal. If you’re a 40+ runner (that being age, not 10km pace), this becomes even more important, as you’re body’s cooling mechanisms become less effective, the longer the race. So if you’re over 40 and want to choose your optimum race, all other things being equal, a 5k or perhaps 10k race in late Autumn or early Winter would be ideal.

Not to say you shouldn’t race in the summer, it’s just that you’re more likely to perform better in the cooler months. Shorter races and off road races where you might find some shade, are both a good choice for summer running.

Pre-cool Before You Exercise

The cooler you are before you start exercising in the heat, the longer it takes for your body to reach a temperature where it will start to slow down. So, if you want to perform as well as you can when you are running in hot weather, it makes sense to cool yourself off before you start.

Strategies such as staying in air conditioning as long as you can, wetting your hair and hat with cool water, and wetting your clothing all help to keep you cooler for longer. Wearing ice vests is another, less readily available strategy. Pre-cooling by eating slushies is also a very effective strategy

Recovery Takes a Battering in Summer

Your attention to recovery is just as important in summer as it is at any time of the year. But, despite the word “summer” invoking visions of lazy days spent in a hammock by the beach, perhaps sipping a gin and tonic, summer is a crazy time in the southern hemisphere. The end of the school year and school concerts add an extra level of organisation to the household, at work everyone insists on setting pre-Christmas deadlines, (though you know there’s little chance of that report being read before the end of January) and Christmas itself can take take stress to a whole new level!

We tend to get less sleep in summer. There’s more happening, more partying, and it can be difficult to get to sleep on some of those stinking hot summer nights. If you’re a runner, you want to get out running early, before it gets too hot, and even if you don’t plan to run in the morning, the cockatoos screeching outside your window will squash any plans for a sleep in! (Thank you very much bird lady who feeds the native birds in the park next door- NOT)

It’s not only lack of sleep that will effect your recovery when you’re running in hot weather. Your body will be working harder to keep itself at the right temperature. You’ll be diverting blood to the skin to keep cool, which means your muscles don’t get quite as much oxygen and nutrient rich blood. This might not have a dramatic effect on your recovery, but it will possibly contribute to an overall feeling of sluggishness.

The Upside

There is an upside to running in hot weather

For someone like me, the upside of all this is simply that it’s summer! Some people come alive in summer, and I’m one of them. I love hot nights, I love a 6 am temperature of 25 degrees, I love the buzz of blowflies (though not when they buzz into my mouth), I love the cooling breeze of running at the beach. I love the sweat, I love the extra effort, I even love those bloody cockatoos!

The mental freshness I feel in summer far outweighs the physiological downside, but if you’re not a summer person, here’s a summary of recommendations for coping with running in hot weather.

Recommendations

If you have a race planned for a day which could be unseasonally hot or you’re race is in a hotter climate, acclimatise your body to the heat by training in an extra layer or two of clothing, or running in the hottest part of the day
Remember to adjust your paces for the heat, especially if you are in the over 40 category
Don’t aim for a personal best in the summer months. It’s unlikely to happen
Pre-cool yourself before you exercise, by staying in air conditioning for as long as possible or wetting hair or clothing. More pre-cooling strategies can be found here
Give yourself an extra rest day every now and again.
Run in the coolest part of the day
Try to run along shady routes, or by the beach where you’ll catch a sea breeze

References:
Larose J, Boulay P, Sigal RJ, Wright HE, Kenny GP (2013) Age-Related Decrements in Heat Dissipation during Physical Activity Occur as Early as the Age of 40. PLoS ONE 8(12): e83148. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0083148

Sports Drinks For Kids

Does Your Kid Need a Sports Drink?

I was absent-mindedly watching someone buying a couple of bottles of Powerade at the Little Athletic’s canteen on the weekend, and watched her hand over $10 for the two drinks – with not much change coming back to her. It seemed a lot to pay for two bottles of lolly water.

Back in the day, when you were thirsty, you found a bubbler or a tap, and drank from it.

Today, sports drinks advertisers would have you believe our kids do so much more sustained and vigorous exercise than the kids of yesteryear, that they need to replenish their fluids, electrolytes and glycogen to prep them for their next big sustained exercise bout!

Your kids do need a sports drink…if they “train hard and push their body to the limits” (1) and if they participate in “sustained, strenuous exercise” (2). And in my experience, very few children fall into that category (and I live in a whole street full of very active kids!)

Generally speaking, sports drinks contain electrolytes and carbohydrates, though there are some which contain electrolytes and practically no carbohydrates and subsequently almost no calories. Powerade Zero is one such drink. Some contain just two electrolytes – sodium and potassium (eg Gatorade G Series Thirst Quencher), and some contain calcium and magnesium and as well as sodium and potassium (eg Powerade Ion 4).

What are Electrolytes

They are positively or negatively charged ions that conduct electrical activity. We humans need electrolytes present in the right concentrations to maintain fluid balance in the body, for muscle contraction and relaxation, and nerve activity. The kidneys play a big role in maintaining electrolyte balance, by conserving or excreting electrolytes.

Water is drawn to areas in the body where electrolytes (particularly sodium and chloride) are most concentrated, so they play a large role in maintaining the equilibrium of water throughout the body.

The electrolytes sodium and chloride can be lost in high concentrations in sweat, whilst potassium, magnesium and calcium are lost in smaller amounts.

**So, does your kid need sports drink?**

It’s generally agreed amongst researchers that sports drinks can aid in hydration and the replenishment of carbohydrate and salts lost through bouts of moderate to high level exercise lasting over 60 minutes, where the participant has lost a large amount of sweat and electrolytes.

Just how much sweat someone loses, and how much of each electrolyte is excreted with the sweat, is a very individual thing. This varies not only across individuals, but can vary for the individual from exercise bout to exercise bout. Many factors come into play, including the weather, the intensity and duration of activity, and the level of hydration before exercising. So in the real world, fluid and electrolyte replacement is not an exact science (in spite of what the sports drinks manufacturers may have you believe).

Children (and adults) rarely need sports drinks. Unless you’ve been exercising continuously for at least 60 mins, there’s really no need for you to have a sports drink to replace glucose or salts. Often adults are fine for up to 90 minutes of sustained moderate to vigorous exercise without needing to replace glycogen or electrolytes. With children, you could start looking at a sports drink at the hour mark. But, let’s face it, most kids don’t exercise vigorously for an hour or so non-stop, and they tend not to sweat in the same way adults do. It’s common to see kids a bit sweaty, but not at all common to see them come off the playing field dripping with sweat.

For kids, usually a piece of fruit and a swig of water will do just as nicely to quench their thirst and replenish lost sugars. If they’ve been running round a lot, and they’ve been particularly sweaty, you can throw in a handful of salted cashews to help retain the water, replenish electrolytes, and utilise the carbohydrate from the fruit more quickly.

For the most part, your kids don’t need to replenish electrolytes in a hurry by guzzling sports drinks. What electrolytes they’ve lost whilst playing sport will be replaced over a day of healthy eating.

Are there any situations when sports drinks are good for kids?

Sure. If your child is attending a sports tournament, when they are playing many games of a vigorous sport such as any of the football codes, hockey, netball, basketball, then electrolyte replacement drinks could be a good option for rehydration and energy replenishment, particularly if they do not get enough rest in between games to take on more substantial nutrition.

If your child sweats A LOT, and their sweat is particularly salty – as evidenced by salt marks on their clothing for example, you may need to consider a sports drink for them, on those occasions when they do need to rehydrate quickly, but for the most part, kids should understand that sports drinks are a treat, just like lemonade is.

For the record, a 600ml bottle of Gatorade holds 140 calories, about 7% of the daily energy needs of a 9-13 year old boy!