Maggie's running podcast

You've heard of supershoes but have you heard of superpants?  I really want a pair of superpants? These are definitely the next thing in running technology to make you go faster.  Find out more about the science behind them on the podcast or, alternatively, follow the links in the excellent article from Outside magazine https://www.outsideonline.com/health/training-performance/running-exoskeleton-research-2022/

Do you like running in the dark? What about if it's cold and wet and dark? I've really struggled this past couple of weeks getting out and running when it has been dark.I tried to find out if there was anything in the scientific literature to support my case against actually running in the dark. Alas, I found little of significance. I did, however, come across an interesting story which, I think, gives me a perfect excuse for not running in the dark. Find out more in this episode of the podcast.

I ran in the Manchester Area Cross Country League yesterday. The weather was miserable and I didn't really run all that well. But, can we blame the weather or was something else coming into play.I discuss having the right mindset and how I might be able to improve my results in future races. 

Do you like running in the rain? I don't but I know that quite a lot of people absolutely love it. It made me wonder whether the weather, particularly rain, made any difference to your running performance. To find out, I took a look in the scientific literature.I came across two papers, by the same groups, looking at performances in the Berlin Marathon between 1974 and 2019. They looked at the weather conditions for the races and assessed whether the weather had made any impact on the times. You can find the papers here (from May 2021) and here (from July 2021).Perhaps we will have to do our own research to find out the ideal conditions for our own performances. As for me, I will, no doubt, continue to be a bit of a fair weather runner, avoiding the rain wherever possible. 

Have you ever felt like giving up? Have you ever got to a race and wondered why on earth you even entered? I felt a bit like that in the race on Saturday but, the words of a friend inspired me to continue. Those words were about an athlete who, despite the circumstances, refused to give up - I bring you the story of John Stephen Akhwari, a marathon runner from Tanzania competing in the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games. 

This week we delve into the science behind running uphill. Can running uphill help you to run faster and will it improve your 5km Parkrun time? I looked at a few papers from the sports science literature to find out if there was evidence out there to show any benefit to hill training and what those benefits might be.  I looked at a study where sprinters trained on hills of different gradient, a study involving 32 Ethiopian distance runners and a study where 20 well trained runners did uphill interval training under 5 different conditions.  Did they see improvements in performance outcome and what were the benefits to this type of training?Our own athletes have been busy running, skipping and bounding uphills and anecdotal evidence suggests that this is beneficial. There are plenty of guides out there to help you start doing uphill training. The main thing is not to try to do too much too soon 5-6 hill repeats of 50-60m would be a good start progressing to an increased number of reps and/or increased distance as the weeks go on. Incorporating some training drills (like the skips and the bounds) will also help improve running form and running economy over time. It's also fun to do something a little bit different from a normal steady run and with the warm up and cool down, you will find that you actually cover quite a lot of ground in the session. 

Welcome back to the E=MC2 of running. Having mostly recovered from an ankle problem, I'm back running again in earnest and looking forward to racing over the winter. In this episode I talk about Alice Wright's British Record attempt on the 1 hour track record, I report on the Javelina Jundred 100 mile race and follow up on the Kearney family world record attempt on the half marathon mother and daughter best time. Here's the link to Alice Wright's 1 hour run https://youtu.be/PyqrxqH9Za4

In this week's episode, Maggie interviews Sarah and Aileen Kearney. They are going to attempt to beat the world record for the mother and daughter combined time for a half marathon. As part of this challenge, they are raising money for the Clatterbridge Cancer Charity https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/kearney-worldrecordattempt. I've also got news of another world record and, of course, the sorry plight of my own running, which is beating no world records at the moment.

There was an interesting challenge this weekend, an attempt on the Paddy Buckley Road. Could Kim Collison beat Matthew Roberts time of 16 hr 37 min to cover the 47 Snowdownian peaks in Wales? Another challenge was the Olympic qualifying time of the marathon. With the NN Mission Marathon in Hamburg being cancelled, the event was moved to The Netherlands. Could Eliud Kipchoge run fast enough to secure his place in the Kenyan team? I also delved deeper into the use of exercise in cancer treatment. The results were really fascinating. Why have I never heard of exercise being used in cancer treatment before?

On the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, I wondered whether you could have run on board and that led me to search out whether running on a modern cruise ship is possible and whether there were any recommendations for running while on a cruise. I also give my advice on training around the COVID vaccine, I look at a world record attempt over 50 km and investigate what macronutrients might be most important for masters marathon runners.

Just how many cherries do you have to eat to improve your running? In fact, can cherries even help you run faster or recover more quickly? I look at the science behind the potential benefits of tart cherries. I also talk about Beth Potter's amazing road 5k world best and I can't help mention those shoes!

I've got a problem with my ankles but I don't want to just not do any training at all. So, I wondered, what's the minimum amount of training that I can get away with? I delve into the science and see what I need to do in order to stay fit. The results surprised me a little. I also find out about coffee napping and report on this week's running.

I came across a few rather bizarre stories this week. One about a woman who ran rather fast over a mile days before giving birth, another about a woman who ran a marathon just before giving birth and another about the very unusual tactics involving poison that were employed in the 1904 Olympic Marathon in St. Louis. Let's just hope that such tactics are not used in this weekend's Olympic marathon trials in London. The main science focus of the podcast though is on running after giving birth and whether there are any advantages or disadvantages to doing this.

Have you seen the running shoes from FBR? They don't have a heel. It made me wonder if there was an advantage of not having a heel in terms of the weight that was saved by having no heel. I look at an article showing the effect of the weight of the shoe on running economy and a guy who did a slightly crazy experiment which involved cutting up his running shoes. I look at the results from both these studies. I also briefly look at a paper showing the effect of movement on the production of immune cells to fight infection.

Does the time of day that you run really affect your performance? What's the best time of day to run? What's the most beautiful parkrun in the country? And is there a dancer inside of you waiting to get out? These are the questions that I ask in this week's podcast with a more detailed look at a paper from Nature Research's Scientific Reports (2020) 10:16088 entitled Gold, silver or bronze: circadian variation strongly affects performance in Olympic athletes.

What is retro running and is it something that we should be embracing? We're not talking about putting on your 1970s running kit here but can retro running help reduce injury or be part of rehabilitation post injury. We also look at Wirral AC's success in the England Athletics virtual road relays and some interesting indoor races.

In this week's episode we look at a paper about sleep and the athlete from Br J Sports Med 2020. We discuss the problems that athletes, particularly elite athletes, might have with sleep and what we can do about it. We talk about good sleep hygiene and provide some advice about how to provide a good atmosphere for sleep.

If you've been paying attention to the discussion about equalising the distances in men's and women's cross country then you will know that the debate is quite polarised. I was interested to discuss the subject with women's athletics historian, Katie Holmes. We were coming from slightly different standpoints but highlighted the arguments from both sides. I also have a story about a woman beating all the men in the field It was also the Kenyan National Cross Country Championships this weekend so I took a look at the results.

I imagine that I'm running like a deer, elegant, powerful, relaxed, in control but the race photos are a continual disappointment, showing some mad woman, hair everywhere, grimacing in pain. The bible says The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights. I think I'd like feet like deer both for running and for life.

I think most of us are feeling the stress of lockdown. The not knowing, the uncertainty is having an effect on us all. What is going on in our brains and what can we do about it?

Do we need to take vitamin D supplements? It's a good question for those of us who live far north of the equator. Just what are the benefits of vitamin D and how much vitamin D do we actually need. I review a paper from the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism in today's episode to help you understand some of the reasons why it's important to have enough vitamin D.

Children are restricted from running certain distances in some countries but is there any scientific evidence to show that running long distances is harmful? I found an interesting article from Curr Sports Med Rep 2017;16(6):428-434 entitled the The Pediatric Endurance Athlete which looks at the important considerations for our young athletes and discuss the paper in today's podcast.

It isn't often you get a race where there is just one woman competing against a whole bunch of men, it's even rarer when that one woman beats all the men. But that's exactly what happened recently in Mumbai in a 24hr track race.

While my parkrun barcode gathers dust on my chest of drawers, speed Lauren Reid has been smashing the parkrun world record down under.

Katie Holmes only started running when she was 47 but she's fallen in love with the sport. So much so that she's now studying the history of women's athletics, particularly road running and fell running. She gives us a unique perspective on what running was like before the 'marathon boom' of the 70's and 80's changed things for ever. Read more on her blog www.runyoung50.co.uk.

Do you ever get weary of training? Do you ever get weary of doing the right thing? The bible talks about the rewards of doing good and, as with life, so it is when we do our training, we will reap the rewards.

We all know that exercise is good for us, but it's especially good for us as we get older. The benefits for the heart and lungs are pretty clear but the benefits for the immune system are less well known. However, even a small amount of exercise each day can be beneficial.

We've all be forced to train in public spaces, this isn't so bad for endurance athletes, but how are the sprinters coping. A recent article in the guardian reported that elite Welsh athletes had had abuse thrown at them while training in public spaces. What can be done about this?

All of us have had to get used to wearing face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic but so far, we haven't been made to wear them while exercising outside. Would wearing a face mask while running affect performance? Are there any other problems with wearing a face mask while exercising? I look at the science literature in search of answers to these questions in today's episode.

Is it a bit weird to greet people when you are out running or is this standard running etiquette? I don't want to appear like a madman but I quite like a cheery 'hello', a nod of the head or a smile. Is this a thing of the past?

You might have heard in the financial news about a group of small investors who took on the might of the hedge funds by buying GameStop stock. Well you might not know about the man behind this and how he was able to give the big hedge funds a run for their money.

There was no mile or 1500m for women in the 1960 Olympic Games, but in 1961 my mum, Liz Joyce, ran the world leading time for the mile. She never got the opportunity to run at an Olympic Games, a World Championship or similar international athletics meeting because the furthest women were allowed to run was 200m. Athletics has moved on a lot since then, we discuss what it was like for women running back in the late 1950's, some of her crazy anecdotes and the differences between running then and running now, from a women's perspective. It's a timely interview with much discussion going on about #runequal and equality for women running cross country.

What happens when you lose your focus on running, when you get distracted by other worldly pursuits? There is a path to redemption, and just as with life you can seek forgiveness, so your running sins can be forgiven. In today's podcast I look at what we can learn from the story of David and Bathsheba.

Can you outrun your car? I'm not talking about for speed but for mileage. What about setting yourself a challenge to run further than your car this week/month/year. It might make you think more about those unnecessary journeys and more about getting those running miles in.

Once again you're tired, hungry but you still haven't managed to get your run in. What can you do? Sometimes we need to think outside the box. Running training isn't just about running. There are alternatives that might just help us be better runners but the exercise we do needs to be manageable, it needs to be enjoyable, it needs to be planned and it needs to be useful to your overall running goals. I talk about my struggles with fitting running into a busy schedule.

You may know about Nike's super fast Alphafly Next% or Hoka One One's Carbon X2 running shoes but did you know that there is a new entrant into the carbon-plated market and that from an unlikely corner of the market? Find out more in today's episode.

Have you ever taken part in a race where there was no defined finish, you just had to keep going until you were the last competitor? It sounds like a crazy kind of a race but if you think of COVID as a kind of race then it seems somewhat similar. We've started the race but we don't know where the finish line is. What can running teach us about the strategies that we need to adopt in order to win this race? I look at an interesting article by Alex Hutchinson which tries to shed some light on this subject.

Have you entered this year's London Marathon? The race is going to be run both on the streets of London and virtually. How does it feel when your 'actual' race becomes a 'virtual' race and is it better just to accept that it might be virtual?

In the second part of my interview with Heartback Track Club athletes, Anna Shields and Everett Hackett, we talk about running 1 mile in a straight line on the road, running even paced in the marathon and on the track and our favourite workouts.

Sunday's Loving Lockdown Running looks at a verse from Psalm 23. Life, and running, can have its ups and downs. This lockdown has been quite difficult for many both in terms of getting motivated to get out of the door for a run or for life in general. I think this verse is quite encouraging.

Nick Willis just got the longest ever running streak for running sub 4 minutes for the mile. It's phenomenal to have that level of consistency year on year. Do you have a special running streak? Have you set yourself a running streak goal?

This is the last part of my little series for people starting to run for the first time or those coming back from injury or after a break. There are some useful tips about what to do and what you need in order to stay fit, healthy and motivated.

Do you always do the same run or the same distance - at the same speed. You really want to mix it up a bit, do some different runs and have more fun with your running. It will also improve your speed when it comes to that important race. I've got some great tips whether you're a complete beginner or if you've been running a little bit longer.

In the second part of my beginner's guide to running, I talk about that feeling you get when you start running for the first time or the first time in a while, what to put on your feet and getting into good habits by doing some running drills. I also talk about having a level of accountability to help you get out of the door when you really don't feel like going for a run.

I'm going back to basics with my podcasts this week and I've got some top tips for people starting out on their running journey, or coming back to running after a break. If you're a beginner runner then these next few episodes are for you, packed with useful advice and top tips.

Anna Shields remarkable story about how she started running again years after having originally giving up any hope of being a successful athlete. In the first of a two part interview I speak with Anna and her clubmate Everett Hackett, a pretty mean athlete himself with a 2:18 marathon time, about both the marathon and Anna's story.

Apparently Emil Zatopek used to train with weights on his back - sometimes that weight was his wife! But what would happen if you tried to race with a weight on your back - a bit tricky?! Well, many of us try to race through our lives with weights on our backs. In today's lockdown episode, I have a look at a verse in the bible that compares running a race with living our lives.

Do we always have the right perspective on the results we achieve? I look back at one of the most extraordinary races in athletics history and see what lessons we can learn from it about our own reaction to races that don't quite go as expected.

Have you ever been sent the wrong way by a marshal in a race? This weekend Eilish McColgan got sent the wrong way in a 10k race in Dubai and ended up finishing in the middle of nowhere! When has your run gone wrong due to no fault of your own?

Have we lost our social conscience due to COVID lockdown? What happens if somebody in the street needs help - do we stop and help them or are the COVID risks too high? I had a strange incident on my run that made me ponder whether I'd become less caring due to lockdown restrictions.

Lockdown hasn't been great for kid's exercise. It would appear that