As you emerge from the base phase of your marathon training (see my previous post here), you’ll be feeling fitter and stronger. You’ve perhaps got eight or ten weeks until the big day, so it’s time to build on that aerobic base.

A lot of plans will begin to ramp things up now by increasing distance and adding in speed work. You may find that you do your longest run in this four week block. Building up time on feet and speed endurance are what this phase is all about, as it continues to build both physical and mental fatigue resistance. 

The speed work that gets added to plans is designed to challenge your energy systems and muscles in a slightly different way that you’ve been training so far. The higher intensity efforts help to force adaptations in your muscles and connective tissue, making them stronger. They also challenge your cardiorespiratory system and helps to improve your aerobic thresholds. Lots of other good stuff is happening here as well, including building mental strength and preparing you for a solid performance on marathon day. 

For me, starting to train more at my target marathon pace is important. Remember, the marathon is a long way and commands a consistent output from start to finish. To most of us that don’t run with power meters, this means a consistent pace, and that’s why setting your target pace is important. This pace will feel easy in the first half, and will become progressively harder as you go into the last third. So, getting a lot of practice at this target pace is critical to helping you find that groove on race day. To help you find your marathon pace, the McMillan calculator is a good starting point.

 Different plans will have different formats for building this in, such as sandwiching  it in between easy sections in a longer run or having fast finish long runs where the last few miles are at your marathon pace. If your plan doesn’t do this, I would recommend adding some marathon pace practice in. The easiest way of doing this is to sandwich by splitting your runs so that you do one third at easy pace, one third at marathon pace and the last third at easy pace. Start off with your mid-length runs and keep your long runs easy. If you are more experienced at marathon training, then you can do this in your long runs, or go for the fast finish option. 

When I design marathon plans for my athletes, I use the speed sessions to build lots of marathon pace practice. I use the sandwich method but tend to sandwich faster efforts in between two sections of marathon pace. I’ve found this to be very effective and is based on the speed sessions designed for my first claim club, Bournemouth AC

If you don’t already have a target marathon pace, choose one. Look through your runs in the base phase and pick a pace that is realistic and aligns with your goals. If your goal is to finish without a specific time target and simply enjoy the event, choose a pace that will allow you to do this. Don’t put yourself under unnecessary pressure. It’s easy to get carried away, especially if your training is going well. If you have a time goal, work out the pace you need to run and decide whether that’s realistic and adjust if necessary. It is likely that at the end of this phase you will reevaluate the pace following the speed work and any tempo runs.

Once you have your target marathon pace, practice it at least once per week and build up the time you run at this pace. However, you are not trying to run long distances at this pace. Remember, you can sandwich it into your runs and you can do a couple of longer runs with the last 3 to 5 miles at this pace.

If your plan gives you speed work – do it! This is so important for your physical and mental development. I appreciate that it can be confusing to decide on paces and understand the different run type terminology, but your plan should provide guidance on this. For my own explanation of run types, see here.

Run your long runs easy and don’t panic if you have to walk some of it. You want to push yourself somewhat, but you also have to take into account everything else going on: weather; personal stress, terrain; sleep quality – to name just a few. If you need short walking breaks near the end of a long run, that’s fine. It doesn’t necessarily translate to walking on race day, so take the pressure off and enjoy it. Yes, it will be tough – but remeber your goal in this phase: time on feet endurance and fatigue resistance.

Practice your fuelling and hydration. Do not leave this to chance! This is in two parts:

• Pre-race: Think about what you are going to eat in the two days before, and the morning of the marathon. The same goes for hydration: keep your electrolyte levels topped up. Practice in this phase of training, even if it’s just once before a really long run.

• In-run: Experiment with your in-run fuel and hydration. What does the event have available and at what frequency; will it be suitable for you? For example, if they hand out gels or sports drinks and you think you may use them, get hold of some and try them on your runs. Not all products suit everyone and upset stomachs are very common with poor fuelling strategies and a lack of trying products beforehand.

One strategy I’ve used very successfully is pre-loading both fuel and hydration. For fuel, I always use Generation UCAN (Super Starch). This can provide several hours of energy and you take it before you run. You can find out more here, and get a 10% discount using the code: RunTeach.

For hydration, my product of choice is SOS as it’s specifically designed to deliver a measured amount of electrolytes without the fizzing or stomach upset that some other electrolyte products can cause. As a bonus it is also fully organic and mixes immediately. I pre-load with this to ensure I am well hydrated with topped up electrolyte levels. I use it both the night before a long run / race as well as in the morning of the event. You can take it with you if you prefer to carry fluids rather than use the on-course options. You can find more here, and save 20% with discount code: CHRIS20.

I love this phase of marathon training as you can really get your teeth into it. You are building up raw endurance, speed endurance, fatigue resistance, fuel and hydration run-throughs, and for me: starting to do mental and visualisation run-throughs.

Have fun with it, and embrace the challenge – the taper will be here soon enough!

Most importantly, keep a check on your effort and pace – keep it real and doable. Remain calm about your long runs, practice that marathon pace, get in that speed work if it’s on your plan and experiment with fuel and hydration.

Until the next phase, happy training!

The post 5 do’s of marathon training – progressive phase appeared first on RunTeach.

If, like many runners, you get that undeniable pain in your side or stomach part-way through a run or race, you’ll know exactly what it’s like to have a stitch when running.

Often it is debilitating; forcing us to slow down or stop. Try as we might, sometimes we just can’t run through it and we get frustrated and stressed when our race or run is ruined.

But you are not alone: according to research by Morton and Callister 2015 (1), more than 70% of runners reported having the pain of a stitch, and one in five race participants can be expected to get a stitch during the event.

Formally know as Exercise-related transient abdominal pain (ETAP), the stitch is one of body’s mysteries that unfortunately, science just hasn’t been able to get to the bottom of. However, it is known that a stitch is directly related to the abdominal area. And there a couple of common theories that try to explain it:

• Reduced blood flow to the diaphragm causes it to cramp. The logic behind this, is that as we exercise and the intensity or duration increases, the body diverts blood to the working muscles of the limbs. This results in reduced blood flow to the diaphragm and therefore causes cramping.

• The second theory, according to Morton & Callister, is that a stitch could be down to the irritation of the membrane lining of the abdominal cavity. They are keen to point out though, that more research is needed to arrive at a conclusive cause.

There have been various studies over the past 15 years, and although none have been conclusive in finding an absolute cause of ETAP, the characteristics are reasonably well understood:

Pain:

Sharp or stabbing when severe. When less severe, the pain is more like cramping, aching or pulling.

Location:

In the majority of cases, the pain can be identified to a specific spot, although it can be anywhere in the abdominal area.

Source: Morton and Callister, 2015.

Shoulder tip pain:

Pain in the tip of the shoulder has been associated with ETAP from as far back as 1951 (Sinclair, 1951). In the vast majority of cases reported by Sinclair (2), the shoulder pain was on the same side as the abdominal pain.

Age:

According to Morton & Callister, young, active individuals appear to be more prone to getting a stitch – 77% of active individuals under 20 years reported experiencing a stitch compared to 40% of people over the age of 40.

In the research findings, there has been some commonality in factors that can bring on a stitch. These include:

Running:

This is the sport where ETAP occurs more frequently than any other sport. But of course, you knew that which is why you are reading this!

Food and drink:

Eating and drinking before exercise is consistently reported to provoke the onset of a stitch. In one survey, around 52% of individuals claimed that eating before exercise brought on their stitch, while 38% said that drinking before exercise induced the stitch. In another study, 30 out of 35 cases where the people had eaten prior to exercise all experienced a stitch. This is compared to 19 out of 35 cases who experienced a stitch but didn’t eat before exercise.

There appears to be a link between the volume of food and drink consumed the evening before a race and the onset of a stitch during the event (Morton and Callister, 2015). They also state that there does not appear to be any significance in the nutritional make up of the pre-event meal with respect to carbohydrate, protein and fat. It is recognised, however, that more research needs to be done in this area.

There is also some evidence of people reporting stitch pain shortly after taking on fluid at drink stations and this brings us onto a link between sugar and stitch pain.

Hypertonic sports drinks, those that have higher amounts of salt and sugar, have been shown to provoke a stitch far more frequently than either isotonic (same amount of sugar and salt as normal bodily fluids) or hypotonic (e.g. water) drinks. Isotonic drinks seem to induce stitches less frequently than the other two.

Right then, you’re running your race and a stitch comes on. What do you do now? There are a few reported actions that can be taken, The % in brackets indicates what percentage of people have found the action resolved their stitch pain:

• Deep breathing (40%)
• Pushing on the affected area (31%)
• Stretching the affected area (22%)
• Bending forward (18%)

It’s very tricky to give advice on this because we don’t really know what the cause is. But, here are the top tips:

Don’t eat or drink in large volumes closer than two hours before activity. As some people are more prone to stitches than others, they may need to leave three or four hours between meals and activity – especially racing.

Avoid hypertonic drinks (those high in sugar and salt). You may need to replace electrolytes (salt etc), but do so in a way where you are not taking on a load of sugar. Could this be why some people get pain when taking a lot of gels?

Improve your core strength. And when I say ‘core’, I am talking neck to knees. The more you can control the rotation of your torso during running, the better it is. Not only will you go faster for less energy output, but you won’t jiggle your internal organs as much and therefore could reduce your chances of getting a stitch.

Improve your posture. Clearly linked to core strength, improving posture has been shown to reduce ETAP.

Improve your general fitness. It has also been shown that as your overall fitness to carry out running and other activities improves, the instance of ETAP reduces.

Grow old (McCrory, 2017 – in humour) (3). Stitches are less prevalent in the over 40s.

So there you are, we don’t yet know the ins and outs of the mechanics of a stitch, but we do know the type of pain that is caused and where that pain occurs.

We also have a pretty good idea of what we can do to reduce the chances of us getting a stitch, and we have some proven strategies to relieve stitch pain when we get it.

Cited research
(1) Morton, D. & Callister, R. Sports Med (2015) 45: 23. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-014-0245-z

(2) Sinclair JD. Stitch: the side pain of athletes. N Z Med J. 1951;50(280):607–12

(3) McCrory P. A stitch in time. Br J Sports Med. 2007;41:125

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Can The Weather Affect How I Breathe?

I wrote a post on breathing and running here, and as part of my research into it I couldn’t avoid finding out all about how weather can affect our breathing.

I separated out the content as it really is a full post in itself. I trust you will find it useful.

It also inspired me to become an advanced breathing instructor and write my own breathing course, which you can find here.

Hot Weather

The truth is, we don’t really know why hot weather makes it hard for some of us to breathe, but here are some of the theories:

• Inhaling warmer air can cause our airways to narrow and this can trigger coughing and shortness of breath. This is known as a bronchospasm and causes inflammation in the airways making it harder to breathe.
  
• Hot weather can increase the amount of pollutants and mould in the air.
  
• Hot weather and the summer season can increase the pollen count. Currently, much of the UK is experience extremely high/severe levels of pollen.
  
• Your body is using more energy to maintain body temperature, so there is less energy for breathing. If you suffer from a breathing illness, you already require a higher energy resource just maintain stable breathing, so this starts to suffer. We become less efficient at adapting to higher air temperatures as we age, so we may suffer more breathing issues as we get older.

Some of the suggestions that may help in hot weather:

• Keep cool to preserve more energy for breathing. Some strategies are:
  • Apply a high factor sunscreen.
  • Splash yourself with cool/cold water at regular intervals, especially on the back of your neck.
    
• Avoid exercises between 11:00 and 15:00 as that tends to be the hottest part of the day.
  
• If applicable, keep taking your medication as prescribed.
  
• Drink at least eight glasses of water per day, and eat more cold food. Fruit and salads are a good choice as they contain water and contribute to your hydration.
  
• If required, add some electrolytes into your water to avoid over-hydration on plain water. We lose electrolytes when we sweat, but we ordinarily replace these through our normal diet. However, during excess sweating, under stress or diarrhoea or vomiting , we may lose more than we replace. In addition, if we are drinking large volumes of plain water, we are diluting the electrolytes in our system. In these cases, it is important to take additional electrolytes. There are numerous electrolyte products on the market and it may take some experimentation to get it right.

Thunderstorms / Air Pressure Changes

Again, why thunderstorms affect our breathing is not fully understood. Some theories are:

• The higher humidity breaks up pollen, mould and other pollutants into smaller pieces. As we breathe these smaller pieces in, they go further into our airways and irritate them. If it is windy, these are then blown about more than usual so the effect can be greater.
  
• Changes in air pressure can make it more difficult to breathe. Usually, the pressure inside our lungs is lower than the pressure in the outside air. As air moves more easily from an area of higher pressure to an area of lower pressure, getting air into our lungs in our usual environment is fine. However, a slight pressure drop in the outside atmosphere, and it can become harder to fill pour lungs, as we have to work our diaphragm and lungs harder. The extra effort is felt much more if we suffer from a respiratory condition.

Most of the advice for dealing with thunderstorms in relation to breathing, is to keep an eye on the weather forecast and stay indoors if possible. Other suggestions include:

• Avoid exercising during a thunderstorm.
  
• Avoid other respiratory condition triggers such as alcohol and stress.
  
• Change and wash your clothes as soon as you can so that you wash away the pollen and other pollutants.

Cold Weather

Cold weather issues seem to be better understood, and according to Asthma UK, some of the reasons are:

• As we inhale cold or damp air, it causes our airways to spasm. This in turn can cause wheezing, coughing and shortness of breath.
  
• There is also an increase in mould spores  in damp and cold conditions, and these can trigger breathing problems.

Some the tips that Asthma UK suggest include:

• Wrap a scarf loosely around your mouth and nose. This will help to warm the air up before you breathe it in.
  
• Breathe in through your nose rather than your mouth. This also helps to warm up the air.

Conclusion

It is clear that weather and changes in atmospheric conditions can affect our breathing, whether we are running or not. I just need to listen to the people around me to hear how they are suffering in the current heatwave.

There are some practical tips above when it comes to general breathing difficulties from weather conditions, but when you add in running and other exercise, the challenge can become much greater.

Some of the runners I know have taken to running on a treadmill to avoid the pollen and other pollutants outside. This works great for many runners, but not everyone has access to a gym or a treadmill at home. If this is the case for you, you could try:

• Hot Weather
  • Running early morning to avoid the heat
  • Choosing an alternative route that provides shade
  • Choosing a route that has a potentially lower exposure to pollen
  • Taking a cooling buff or similar, so you can keep the back of your neck cool. I know runners who choose a route with water stops (or a clean river) where they can splash water on themselves or soak the cooling buff to use while running
    
• Thunderstorms
  • Avoid running in thunderstorms
    
• Cold Weather
  • Although perhaps harder to do while running, loosely wrap a thin scarf or buff over your nose and mouth to help warm the air
  • Practice nose only breathing. Although challenging, it is a recognised technique to train the diaphragm and lungs. The added benefit in cold weather is that it will warm the air before breathing in

In all conditions, you may also have to accept that you may not be able to run as far or as fast as you would like. Adapt your session/training plan to accommodate the weather conditions.

You can also take a look at my breathing course which you can find here.

Chris O’Brien
RunTeach Founder

The post Why does the weather affect my breathing when running? appeared first on RunTeach.

Hydration! With average temperatures starting to rise as we progress through spring and into summer, we are blessed with a few sunny and hot days (for us Brits anyway!). And while the sunshine brings us smiles and joy, it also brings with it a dilemma for us runners: 

How do I hydrate? What do I drink and how much?

As you look out the window, the sky a magnificent blue, you are desperate to get out for your run. But wait… your mind starts racing and a mild panic takes hold.

“Have I drunk enough? Is plain water okay? Do I need to take water with me? I read something about electrolytes, I better grab a bag of them (even though I don’t really know what they are)…. Help, I just want to run and not die, why is it so hard?!”

There is so much confusion around hydration, dehydration, heat stroke, hyponatremia (what?) and self-drowning (yep). Now add in euhydrated, hypohydrated, hyper-hydrated, hypotonic, hypertonic, isotonic… arghhhhhhhhhhhhh – can I go out and run yet?

Keeping hydrated is a serious business and yes, behind the scenes there is a lot going on. But once you have a basic understanding and a feel for how your body reacts under different conditions, it can be pretty simple. Don’t allow yourself to get drawn into the marketing hype.

Let’s start right at the beginning….

Fluid intake is episodic (every now and again). Fluid loss is continuous (all the time, no matter the weather, climate, temperature, etc)¹.

Under normal conditions, our body regulates our water intake and output. While it fluctuates throughout the course of a normal day, it usually gets back to the same point over a 24-hour cycle².

Our little challenge is to deal with potentially larger fluctuations when we are going out for a run. More-so over longer distances, higher intensity, and higher temperatures and greater humidity. Add in to this the fact that we don’t want to be stopping for a pee every 10 minutes ( I would have got a PB but….)!

What is hydration and dehydration?

There are several definitions about, but all are very similar:

Hydration is…

the process of causing something to absorb water ³.

The process of combining a substance chemically with water molecules ⁴.

the process of making your body absorb water or other liquid ⁵.

Dehydration is…

The process of losing or removing water or moisture ³.

Dehydration is a condition that results when the body loses more water than it takes in ⁶.

A condition caused by the excessive loss of water from the body, which causes a rise in blood sodium levels ³.

We classify dehydration into one of three categories:

1. Mild dehydration
2. Moderate dehydration
3. Severe dehydration

Most of us have a pretty good idea about what hydration and dehydration is, and we know we need to keep hydrated. But what exactly does keep hydrated mean?

First, let’s look at what the continuous loss of water from the body – why does it happen? Well, we lose water by…

Sweating, peeing, pooping, tears, saliva (spitting) and breathing.

These are normal everyday events for most of us. We also lose water through less frequent events (depending on how often you are adventurous with your nutrition perhaps…)…

Diarrhoea, vomiting, fever, excessive sweating, excessing peeing (for example diabetes and some medication such as water pills).

But, we also take water in from a variety of sources:

Direct water intake, as part of other fluids/drinks and through food.

So this now brings us to the term euhydration. This is the state at which our body is in hydration/dehydration balance:

Normal state of body water content; absence of absolute or relative hydration or dehydration ⁷.

And this is the state that we should be starting all our running in. It’s what I call “properly hydrated”. If we start a run properly hydrated, and depending on how we get to properly hydrated (more on that in a minute), we are much better able to determine our fluid needs for that run.

The most simple indicator that we can use to determine whether we are properly hydrated is urine colour:

While feelings of thirst, dry lips and headaches can also provide clues, these symptoms can be from other things as well so urine is pretty reliable. Be warned though, some foods and supplements can cause your pee to change colour – too much vitamin C can make it go bright yellow, for example.

The NHS recommend between 1.6 and 2 litres of water per day, but that includes the fluids you get through food intake (approximately 20%). But we need to adjust this for the environment, our exercise intensity, and our individuality. We all sweat at different rates, so we lose water at different rates.

But it’s not only water that we lose. This brings us to electrolytes. Electrolytes are substances that create an electricity-conducting solution when mixed with water. Common examples of electrolytes are Sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, magnesium, and phosphate. They are vital in the chemistry of our bodies, and are usually replaced through normal food intake.

However, when we sweat heavily we lose more than we can replace. This is also the case with vomiting and diarrhoea. This loss is then made even worse when we try to replace the lost fluid by drinking a lot of plain water. This dilutes the fluid in our bodies further, and effectively ‘washes’ the sodium (salt) out. This is bad news and can result in hyponatremia, a condition where the sodium level in the blood is too low. Our cells swell and this can cause a host of health issues, being fatal in extreme cases.

Overhydration, where we are taking on too much plain water, is a significant cause of hyponatremia. We see this condition in long running events such as the marathon. Some runners take water at every aid station and end up severely overhydrated – sometimes with fatal outcomes.

Getting the balance right

So now we are properly hydrated before we start, we need to determine whether we need to drink fluid on our run or whether we’ll be okay until we finish. Sometimes this can be an educated guess (for example a cool 5k or 10k, or a hot 20 miler), and sometimes we need to think a bit more about it. A lot comes down to experimenting and personal feedback. There are online sweat tests that can be taken to help determine your sodium loss per hour. This can help you decide what type of fluids you are going to need.

In my own experience, drinking up to 500ml of either water (if going for a short, cool run) or 500ml electrolyte solution (for everything else) in the hour before running gets me to my starting point of properly hydrated. If it is going to be an intense, long or particularly hot session, I’ll drink more than 500ml of the electrolytes solution or make that solution stronger. A lot will depend on what I have drunk up to that point of the day.

Also worth considering is that if you eat a low carbohydrate, low refined food, or low sodium diet, you made need a slightly higher level of sodium on certain days (all these diet types are generally low salt). However, this will also depend on how long you have been “low salt” and whether your body has fully adjusted to that or not.

A study published in the Journal of Clinical Nutrition¹ in 2015, looked at the water retention rates of a range of drinks. They did this to see if certain drinks could help us retain the water in our fluid intake for longer, therefore being quite practical in situations where we can’t always take on frequent amounts of fluid – and where we don’t really want to be peeing all the time. Sounds ideal for runners.

All the drinks were measured against the baseline of plain water, and the drinks included: plain water, sparkling water, tea, coffee, cola, diet cola, a specific electrolyte solution (oral rehydration solution), a sports drink, orange juice, lager, full-fat milk, skimmed milk and a few others.

Conclusion

They concluded that over after a four hour period, the amount of urine from the specific electrolyte solution (oral rehydration solution) and the full-fat milk was less than that of pure water. This means they had better water retention properties than plain water. All the other drinks were the same as plain water.

Even over a two hour period, only the electrolyte solution, full-fat milk and skimmed milk were better than water at retaining the water.

So what does that tell us? While no research can tell us how your body will react, it does seem clear that drinking a solution of water and electrolytes is better than water alone when we want to stay hydrated over a longer run. If we are heavy sweaters or otherwise have low salt diets, we can probably come to the same conclusion – drink water with electrolytes, but not the commercial sports drinks as they don’t seem to help in this situation, and most still contain quite a lot of sugar. There are however, quite a few specific hydration or electrolyte products available from companies such as High5, SiS, SOS (20% discount code: CHRIS20), OSMO, elete, etc.

So which electrolyte product should I use? We’ll get onto that in the next post 😉

The key here though, is to experiment with different strategies to find the one that works for you. I prefer to be properly hydrated or even pre-hydrated before I run. Pre-hydration, as far as I’m concerned, is topping up both my water and electrolyte levels before I run – especially before long, hot or intense sessions. That way I know my starting point is good. I also drink an electrolyte solution after I run.

By pre-hydrating and through experimenting, I have also trained myself to run 15 miles or so on a cool day, without needing to take fluids with me. On a hotter day, I always take an electrolyte solution if my run is going to be over 10k. But, I don’t carry a water bottle in my hand. Why?….

One last thought…

Carrying things in hands while running changes your running mechanics. Carrying a water bottle while running will alter the way you run, and over time this could lead us down all kinds of avenues we would rather not go (injury mainly).

Instead of carrying the bottles in your hands, use a race vest or hydration vest. I prefer a race vest and then put a small bottle (or two) in the carrying pouches. I find that with hydration vests (CamelBak, etc.), the water gets warm from being against your back and that’s just yuk!

So there you have it:

1. Use your pee as an hydration guide
2. Always try and be euhydrated (properly hydrated) throughout the course of a day, adjusting for your environment. Add electrolytes (even at work) if necessary
3. Experiment with plain water and also with electrolyte solutions during and after your run
4. Prehydrate (not overhydrate!) and train yourself progressively to run further/harder without needing to carry fluids. The keys are train and progressive.
5. Be sensible and listen to your body, and stay safe. Too little or too much is never a good thing

As an ambassador for SOS Hydration, I am able to offer everyone a 20% discount. I love their product, which is why I was keen to become an ambassador for them. It is easy on the stomach and certified organic. You can buy SOS from:

SOS website and use the discount code: CHRIS20 for your 20% off

(https://sos.refersion.com/c/8a7923)

REFERENCES

1. 1. Ronald J Maughan, Phillip Watson, Philip AA Cordery, Neil P Walsh, Samuel J Oliver, Alberto Dolci, Nidia Rodriguez-Sanchez, Stuart DR Galloway. A randomized trial to assess the potential of different beverages to affect hydration status: development of a beverage hydration index
   2. Leiper JB, Seonaid Primrose C, Primrose WR, Phillimore J, Maughan RJ. A comparison of water turnover in older people in community and institutional settings. J Nutr Health Aging 2005;9:189–93.
   3. Dictionary.com
   4. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/hydration
   5. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/hydration
   6. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/dehydration/
   7. www.medilexicon.com/dictionary/30690

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