Run Mileages (Brett)

This month at work has been health month and the one aspect associated with it is seeing what everyone’s mileages were either walking or running. Upon seeing what my mileages are a number of people have been asking how me how do I do it, not only from a time perspective but also physically.

This is when I break out into one of my random philosophies on the world…so here is one of them. Many will follow in due course.

Regarding finding the time to run or do some form of exercise all you need is half an hour of your day whether in the morning or evening. So instead of merely working that extra hour at work because it is “the thing to do” or faffing around the house, just crack on and spend that half an hour doing some exercise as you will feel a lot better for it and it also provides with some me to time think about the world and how to solve the euro crises or if you are feeling really inspired you can question how relative is quantum physics… I just generally ponder about the weather and what is for dinner during my runs in the week.

Regarding the mileages which I run. There are a number of fundamentals associated with how I manage to run the miles which I do.

1. Enjoyment – I really enjoy running as to me it is an excuse for me being outdoors no matter what the weather. When I see these guys running and they look totally miserable as they think they have to run at a certain speed or HR I enjoy joining them getting them to slow down and relax because if they hate what they do they will never get back out there tomorrow.
2. Intensity –I just generally run at a level which feels good for the day and take things from there. Fair enough I might throw in some “hurt” when in the mood but that is generally VERY randomly as I am generally to busy enjoying cruising around.
3. Time – I always try and make time to have a run so for example if I have a huge work load I will make sure that I get to work extra early so that I know that I can run in the evening or visa versa.
4. Rest – The key difference between any pro athlete and sociable runner is the fact that he/she is able to rest and have sport massages, thus when I feel rather knackered I will either take the day off or merely go for a light cruisy run as when you try and act like a hero the only thing which it will lead to is an injury.
5. Socialising – It is great running with mates, you don’t have to always focus on your training program. Just heading out with them no matter what is their standard will provide the opportunity for good banter. My weekly running partner definitely has this approach as he is very rapid compared to me but hopefully my banter is of a light enough nature for him to keep coming back for more. Even if you are on a long run and you see someone battling along join them for a few minutes as it will refresh the both of you mentally and physically and you never know who you will meet as running is the great equaliser in society.

Training in the Surrey Hills

I really like this photo of our run in the Surrey Hills yesterday - Brett, me and my brothers.

Reading material (Hannah)

I’ve just read two really good books on running / endurance so I thought I’d write an entry on my various bits of reading material...

I love reading about sport and sports related stuff – getting immersed in other people’s adventures, understanding the science behind sport and nutrition, learning about new ways of doing things, ...  Brett and I are beginning to build up a good collection of books and magazines as well as making use of the growing number of sources of information on the internet.  Brett is also a huge fan of Twitter and follows an impressive collection of elite sportspeople – cyclists, ultrarunners, ironmen, etc.

The book I’ve just finished is Relentless Forward Progress by Bryon Powell.  One of the things I really liked about the book was the fact that Bryon included loads of articles by other top ultrarunners.  This made it a great collection of advice and experience.  It’s a really practical book – something I’ll definitely keep dipping back into as we train for the Transalpine and whatever other adventures follow that.  It’s also supported online on Bryon’s website – iRunFar.  Brett already spends a lot of time on there and follows the site’s Twitter feed.  I’m looking forward to going and exploring the site, especially in terms of looking for advice on training for multi-day races as there’s only a short section on that in the book.

Before that, I read Survival of the Fittest by Mike Stroud.  This was much more detailed and so took a lot longer to read.  But the amount of information in it made it well worth the effort.  Each chapter deals with a different aspect of endurance racing – e.g. extreme heat or extreme cold.  To give an example of how the body reacts to these different stresses, Mike describes a race that he's taken part in - some pretty hard core things which are quite inspiring and daunting at the same time.  This story of the race is mixed in with explanations of the science behind the reactions of the human body.   I find this really fascinating as I love understanding how my body reacts under stress and why.  One of the key messages that Mike is trying to get across is that the human body is designed to deal with a lot more than we think.  It's not  designed to sit behind a desk all day or in front of the TV.  And it's not designed to eat processed crap.  This fits in really well with so many of the other messages that are breaking through in sports and nutrition literature - see also Born to Run (Chris MacDougall) and the Primal Blueprint (Mark Sissons).

When we're not reading books, we have a couple of magazines that we enjoy reading.  The two we subscribe to are Trail Running and Triathlete Europe.  The first has a big focus on getting out into the countryside, getting muddy, exploring and having fun - doing slightly more alternative stuff.  What we like about Triathlete Europe is that it's quite detailed and doesn't just re-hash the same articles year after year like some other magazines.  A lot of the articles are written by pro athletes or top coaches and they cover some really useful and interesting topics as well as give us an insight into their racing or training.  It gives a lot of food for thought...

Back on the bike (Hannah)

It's three weeks since I twisted my ankle and I'm still not able to run - I think I probably tore something and running the final 11 miles of the marathon on it wasn't very sensible.  But experience has taught me that I mustn't rush back into training or it'll be a problem that drags on for months.

So, other than a few walks, I spent the Christmas period resting.  And I think my body needed it - once it had realised it was time to rest I found myself sleeping a huge amount each night.  It's been a shock heading back to work this week but I do feel a lot better.

But the problem with catching up with myself and doing minimal exercise is that I've not been sleeping particulary well over the last few days.  Definitely time to start tiring myself out again!  So, I'm back on my turbo trainer, doing lengthy endurance sessions in the hope that these will help my running.  And I'm also walking lots.  I followed this approach last year when I had calf problems - but I'd definitely prefer to be outside running rather than inside on a turbo!

I've also been doing lots of balance work - to get the nerves etc firing properly again and to build up all the small stabilising muscles.  So I'm spending lots of time standing on one leg, doing one legged squats, balancing on the bosu, lunges, ...  I've been doing lots of googling on ankle strengthening and I found one article that suggested that, if you can't stand on one leg for 30 seconds with your eyes closed, then this indicates that your risk of going over on your ankle is increased.  So I've figured that I need to get to a place where I can stand on one leg for a lot longer than that!

Things are definitely improving so hopefully I'll be back running in the next week or so...  And definitely continuing with all the strengthening exercises.

A month's worth of updates (Hannah)

I've been meaning to write another entry for a long time.  It's been on my to do list and it keeps getting trumped by urgent things - work, in particular, has been "getting in the way" - how dare it?!  So here goes...

The BIG NEWS is that we've entered the Transalpine Run 2012!!!!  Check out www.transalpine-run.com and there's also some really cool footage on You Tube.  I think we were a bit too keen to get our names down for this one - we knew that entries opened on 1st December but we didn't have a time.  So both of us were sitting there refreshing the entry page every 5 minutes until entries opened.  It still has entries now so I think this behaviour was probably a little unnecessary!

We're both really excited about it.  But also quite scared - well I am!  It's a "long" year this year - what that means is that we will be covering 8 marathons in 8 days...  over the Alps!  Will training in Richmond Park cut it?!

Getting our entry in has got our motivation going which is great.  Not least cos preparing for this race is going to take me into training volumes I haven't experienced before.  On one weekend recently, we ran 36k on the Saturday and 24k on the Sunday.  We were both actually quite pleased with how we coped.  But it did highlight that we will need to plan our weekend nutrition much more carefully.  Sneaking in a milkshake after Saturday's run, followed by afternoon tea with friends and then bread and soup in the evening isn't quite going to cut it!

Our favourite training run to date was a trip out to the Surrey Hills on the first weekend in December.  We parked in Westcott and ran the Greensands Way to Peaslake.  We know the area well from cycling but not all the off-road paths through the Hurtwood.  So we decided that sticking to a long distance trail would be a good starting point for navigation.  It was a good route with some decent climbs and some great views.  The latter were helped by the weather being completely uncharacteristic for December - we were still running in shorts and t-shirt.

Our approach to this run was different to training for marathons and other road races or triathlons.  Over the next 9 months, it's all going to be about time on our feet and building up leg strength and endurance.  So it was more of a walk-run and there was no pressure on time or heart rate.  It was just about being out there and enjoying it.  I'm looking forward to that aspect of our training - it will be about going to some beautiful places together and exploring.  So we're having fun getting ideas of where we can go and do some tough multi-day sessions not too far from London.  Any ideas welcome...

Today we ran the Portsmouth marathon.  What I really noticed about the race was how civilised it was.  The route was really scenic and all of it was off road.  A significant amount was single track and it was completely varied - from beach front to trail to running along the beach to slipping and sliding through mud and puddles.  It wouldn't be a race for anyone focused on even splits but I enjoyed it.  It felt like we were all on a Sunday run together!  The low-light for me was when I went over on my ankle at 15 miles.  I'm now sat on the sofa with an ice pack on it.  It was quite a nasty fall and I was really impressed by how many people stopped to check how I was.  I won't name any names but there are certainly some marathons I've done where this wouldn't have happened!

My ankles are a bit of a worry for the Transalpine.  They've been weak for ages and I've been doing exercises to strengthen them.  Looks like I need to do some more though!  And think about whether / how to tape them up or wear supports for off-road runs.  I taped the right today cos that's a lot weaker and then went over on the left!  Not ideal.

And the highlight of the race?  One of my friends commented afterwards on how good my technique was at the 26 mile mark.  I've been working on technique for the past year and so this was a real compliment.  I know how I see my running style in my head but for someone (who's a super-good runner himself) to say that it actually looks like that in reality shows that all the hard work is paying off!

Getting hungrier (Hannah)

It's really great to be upping my mileages again.  Not just cos it's getting me closer to my Gold Challenge target (see http://www.goldchallenge.org/gc/user/hannah.miller).  But mainly because I love running and so I love being able to run more.  It was so frustrating earlier in the summer when a persistant virus meant that I would be completely floored after only doing relatively little.

But the thing that comes with running more is the fact that I am getting really really hungry!  I do a big weekly shop when I get to the office on a Monday morning where I stock up on my breakfasts, lunches and snacks for the week.  This approach minimises the chances of me sneaking downstairs in the middle of the afternoon and buying cakes or chocolate bars!  But I realised that I'd upped my activity levels without a corresponding increase in what I was buying on a Monday morning.  So the cake trips were sneaking back in as I just wasn't eating enough.

What was odd though was that I didn't fancy the cakes and wasn't really enjoying them.  What I fancied was another Nakd bar (I'm a big fan of the cocoa mint ones - http://www.naturalbalancefoods.co.uk/store/nakd-nudie-bars/default.aspx) and the sugary rubbish the cakes wasn't really doing it.

A year or so ago, we got going on the Primal Blueprint by Mark Sissons (http://www.marksdailyapple.com/).  It's a bit American but once you get past that there's some really useful theory in there.  And I've found that cutting out the unecessary carbs and sugars has helped me cut weight that I didn't need, improved my stomach happiness and given me more constant energy levels for training.  That probably helps to explain why my body hasn't really been craving cakes...

So here's what I do tend to eat on a daily basis.  My one criticism of myself being the lack of variety...

Pre-run to work - banana
After run - apple
(stretch and shower)
Breakfast - 2 teaspoons nut butter (almond / cashew) off the spoon, whole rolled oats mixed with ground seeds etc / hot water and a dollop of jam, with banana on top
Morning snacks - little Nakd bar, apple
Lunch - hummus, 2 slices rye bread, carrot, sugar snap peas, cherry tomatoes, yoghurt
Afternoon snacks - little Nakd bar, yoghurt, apple

With the occasional cake sneaked in if it's someone's birthday :-)

And so now I have to think about what else can be added to that when I'm running 20k in a day with a weights session at lunch...

Run to work (Hannah)

My run to work is ten miles. So I have to be feeling up for it. Partly cos ten miles is quite a long way to run before breakfast. But also cos it involves a 5.30 wake up call to ensure I have enough time at the other end for a good stretch.

Cos I've not been on top form for a few months I've had to insert a train into the run which makes it a more sensible distance but goes against the idea of saving money and not relying on public transport or being bound by timetables.

Well, this week I started running to work again. And it was great. I just really like knowing I've got there under my own steam, that gives me a real feeling of freedom. And all the autumn colours were out in Hyde park too which made it even more enjoyable.

The only thing I'm going to need to remember is that I'll need to up my calorie intake! Whilst I can afford to drop a couple of kilos I don't want to lose too much weight as we're heading into the cold and flu season.

In terms of food, I have a banana before I leave home. One of my tricks though is having a pot of nut butter at work. Almond at the moment. A teaspoon of that with breakfast and another with lunch is a reliable way of getting good fats and some protein. And it helps keep me full too. I do get some funny looks in the office though as I'm digging into the jar - not sure it's quite the professional image I should be striving for!