When we run (and I suppose this goes for people that do other sports) we tend to lose ourselves in a bubble. We lose track of the rest of the world and how they think and feel. They don’t know the slightest thing about heart rates, running technique and the like.

The closest most people get is watching the London marathon on TV.

BUT as far as we are concerned – we tend to take ourselves for granted.

Like I said, I now have to wear glasses all the time and eyesight is a fine example of this. My optician said (something like) “Your eye muscles have lost power and that is down to your age”

So – what do you to look after yourself?

Bear in mind – you are not bullet proof superman (or woman)

What would happen if you got injured when running?

Have a look at these guys – they helped me recently…
http://www.aviva.co.uk/health/

And what fun in my local country park..

• Women pushing prams without looking where they are pushing them to.
• People riding mountain bikes that are hopelessly the wrong size for them and in hopelessly the wrong gear.
• Of course the wayward dogs bounding all over the place.
• The “lads” gathered round a clapped out Vauxhall Nova with music blasting out shouting “helpful” advice as I go past.

Call me a bit of a miserable sod – but give me rain any day…

However, after a few days relaxing, I felt the need to go for a run in unfamiliar surroundings (I always take kit away with me).

Starting out, it was feeling like hard work and after 20 minutes or so, it was very hard work.

I struggled to get back to our lodgings and then tried to work out why.

And then it struck me.

Lazing around, I had completely forgotten to drink water (or any fluids) and I was dehydrated.

There I was looking at symptoms of over training brought out by a holiday and the rest of it but the truth was that I just needed several (large) glasses of plain water.

(My legs were stiff the next day though…)

It’s a common misconception that running is bad for joints, feet, knees etc etc

That’s because people who give this “advice” have tried running, ran as far as they could until exhaustion set in, using ill fitting shoes and kit and then tried to repeat it the next day and the next.

The human body is not a machine and while it may be easy to go out and get the kit the pros use, it’s actually harder to repeat what you see them do on TV.

So, bottom line, running is not bad for you, it’s 20th century life that’s bad for you.  Like fashion trainers that aren’t designed for running in. Pavements with pot holes and roads with mad drivers.

So to start running; Take it easy, build up gradual, start away from crowds and other people if you feel self conscious and you will be infront of the people who think it is bad for you.

One thing that does trouble me in the first few weeks is nettle stings.

For some reason, my skin seems to get used to it and I suffer no more after about the end of April.

Until then though, it’s out with the old white vinger bottle to wash away the stings…

Here were the three main types of footwear we saw children (aged 8-15) wearing.

Spikes

Split between good athletes (of all ages) – these kids know what they are doing and those kids who want to look like they know what they are doing. And those who don’t really have a clue (or more likely their parents don’t – spikes aren’t going to help you in circuit training…

Fashion Trainers

These are probably as dangerous as the “I don’t know why but I have spikes” people. They provide no support for the foot and are just designed to look good.

Clunky trainers with heels/soccer trainers.

Again these are likely to be dangerous to the wearer.

I should point out that the indoor track is a very unforgiving surface. Probably a hard concrete base covered with a plasticated track.

The bottom line is that none of these are really suitable for kids to run in. And because no one teaches running as a skill in its own right or “how to run” the risks of getting injured, far outweight the fashion problems of the wrong running shoe.

In these days of spreadsheets & calculations, maybe running, along with most sports has become too mechanised.

When I have been out running and seen a fox dart into the hedgrow or seen the gathering mist around the lake near my house at sunset or other things that most normal people never know they have missed, do I really want to know that I did 23 minutes more than last week or that my average for the year is up 7%.

It’s interesting to know this – but it doesn’t change your live…

But that’s what it feels like – my running career (along with most other things I see on the news) has been reduced to lines on a screen.

However, the good news is that I have a large pile of training diaries going back to at least 1996 and I was looking through some old ones the other day – with authentic student coffee stain and realised that you couldn’t get that with a screen. (For a start it wouldn’t be compatible, wrong disc, wrong format, yadda yadda, blah blah). There is another way.

So the Runners Training Diary is a ummm… diary… (which you can start anytime of the year) but it also includes

• Loads of space to scribble notes (that’s a thumbs up from me then)
• Space to include relevant stats (heart rate, nutrition etc etc)
• Defintions of key terms (Lot’s of new years resolution runners will have no idea what a threshold run is – but they probably do it without thinking)
• A VERY comprehensive pace calculator
• 10 pages of key articles which you could probably get on any decent running website – you just won’t read them… ) in the first few pages.

All this is neatly held in a spiral binder – so you can fold it back on itself etc etc

Each double page features a “bet you didn’t know that you didn’t know this” type tips  including tips on cool downs, sports drinks, what to eat & drink after a session.

The runners training diary is useful, practical & if you are thinking of downshifting your running in 2009, then it definately is for you.

The runners training diary is available from all good bookshops or in the UK direct from www.cordee.co.uk

Reason? He figured they must be because he said he couldn’t run for more than 4 hours…

Anyway, in readiness for starting Ironman UK training next week, I have worked out my heart rate zones and since I will be running to the pool (2 miles each way) to swim, I guessed that a trial would be useful.

The pool is 2 miles away but of that, only a 100 metres or so are flat, the rest is either steep uphill or downhill…

So I set off with heart rates programmed in..

Alarm went off – tried to slow down to get back in zone.

Ended up running – r-e-a-l-l-y slowly and today me legs r-e-a-l-l-y hurt.

Steve Monegheti – fancy a race?

Athletics coaches refer to increasing stride length, books tell you that stretching will increase flexibility and thus stride length.

But no-one tells you WHAT the optimal stride length is. Presumably, if I spend all my time stretching and bounding, I would develop the stride length of crazy legs crane. (a cartoon character – just google for it…)

But would that make me run any faster ?

No, probably not.

It has been taken down now (presumably due to copyright restrictions) but youtube had the final of the 2000 Olympics 10,000 metres.

In probably the greatest race ever, Paul Tergat & Haile Gebreselassie were sprinting for the line.

HG just threw his body at the line and tried to make his legs catch up. Paul Tergat tried to do it on stride length but couldn’t physically move his legs fast enough.

I know they are elite athletes but the principles are the same – you can’t run faster on stride length alone.

So what to do?

Well – Pose running says forget about stride length and focus on leg speed turnover (just like HG)

Have YOU tried it out yet?

Click here to visit Pose Tech E-Store

Just as I went past, one of them said “good boy-well done” which I thought was a very odd thing to say.

Then I realised that she was talking to the horse she was riding and not me… doh…