Long distance running

All about running. Message me if you have any questions or comments, and I'll respond to you as quick as possible. Also feel free to submit content to me for approval and if it looks good and meets my standards I'll post it. Thank you and keep running.

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Diet

Keep reading if you’d like to know what to eat, and when to eat it. There are also some things about what not to eat. Remember this is my take on what should go into your body as fuel and what shouldn’t. I am not forcing anyone to do this. However, if you want to improve your running performance, you should read up.

1. Time. The times at which you eat are essential to performing your best come race day. Here’s when I eat:

6:00 a.m. - Breakfast (most important)

9:00 a.m. - Mid-morning snack

12:00 p.m. - Lunch

3:00 p.m. - Mid-afternoon snack

6:00 p.m. - Dinner

2. Food. The foods you eat at the different points in the day should give you the right amount of carbohydrates, protein, fat, and calories that come along with them. Also, despite what many people say, sugar intake is important as well because it replenishes the glycogen in your muscles quickly and efficiently. Now, when I say sugar, I mean pure cane, unprocessed sugar, no fake replacements. That doesn’t mean go pour sugar into your mouth after a race. Drink tea (preferably steeped), coffee (heavy or half and half as creamer), or any drinks of the sort. The replenishment of glycogen in your muscles is extremely important. For endurance athletes, eating upwards of 600 grams of carbohydrates a day will speed up glycogen recovery. An average endurance athlete usually consumes around 3,000-3,500 calories per day. However, everyone is different and thus some may require more or less calories to sustain a healthy body while training. Great things to eat for carbs: bread, pasta, peanut butter, granola, cereal. Great things to eat for fat and protein: vegetables, eggs, meat (be cautious on how you time this one), or dairy (also be careful on this one). Great things to eat as snacks: fruit, granola, dried fruits. Great things to eat before and after a race: dark chocolate, bread, gummy bears. Best thing to drink before a race: water, best thing after: water or Gatorade.

3. Portions. When eating a meal or snack make sure not to fill yourself up. The eating schedule I gave above should prevent anyone from getting too hungry during the day. Eat just enough so that you aren’t hungry anymore. Don’t stuff yourself, it’ll only make it harder on your body to digest and you will be weighed down during races.

Where I got my info: Owen Anderson, PhD, over at Active, and the good folks at the University of Texas at Austin, and of course, my own personal experience.

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The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win

Roger Bannister, first human being to run under four minutes in a mile race.

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Christopher McDougall is the author of the national best selling book that sparked the running world’s interest in getting back to it’s roots. The movement of barefoot and minimalist running has improved the health of almost all the runners who try it. Nike came out with a line of shoes dubbed the “Free” series to accommodate the new wave. These shoes and those like them have little to no padding and their only function is to prevent injury from things like glass, sharp rocks, and other like things. I fully support barefoot running and minimalist running and this video of McDougall speaking for TEDx about it should explain everything I can not.  

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Form

To improve my form I go on runs with a set distance, but not a set pace. I can focus more of my energy on improving my form rather than being worried about my pace because if my form is perfect my pace should be fairly fast. What I’ve learned in 6 years of running in terms of form, is listed below.

1. Bobbing. Keep your head still. Try not to bob your head side to side, this isn’t boxing.

2. Crossing. Don’t cross your arms over your chest. Throwing hooks at the air in front of you will just waste much needed energy. Keep your hands parallel to each other.

3. Arm/hand swings. Ear lobe to pocket. A good way to make sure you’re in charge of your pace and stride is to swing your arms in the most efficient way possible. For long distance running the way that’s easiest for me is swinging my hands up to my ear lobes and then back down to my pockets. This ensures my strides will stay consistent and smooth.

4. Foot strikes. The way a person’s foot strikes the ground is probably the most difficult thing to improve/correct. For me, this step requires the most focus. Here’s what not do: heel-ball-toe strikes. The heel-ball-toe technique is the most common among beginners. The way you should strike the ground with each step is with your fore-foot. The fore-foot is the middle ground between running on your toes and stomping flat-footed on the ground (a terrific way to get shin splints). When you try this, expect your strides to be shorter. A shorter stride does not mean a slower time. When your foot hits the ground heel first, you are working against yourself. You push yourself backwards slightly with each step and lose momentum at the same time. Stepping with the fore-foot builds/maintains momentum and reduces how much energy you expend with each step.

5. Bouncing. Try to keep the general up and down motion your body does to a minimum. Imagine a hall way that’s only an inch taller than you, and you’re running through it. Taking long bounding strides requires a large amount of energy to keep up for a long race such as a marathon.

6. Tired slouching. Tired slouching is pretty self explanatory. When you get tired you begin to slouch which in turn makes the rest of your form sloppy. When you feel the burn try to block out the pain and focus on your form. Keeping up good posture will make sure your form doesn’t change for the worse. The more you practice this step the more natural it becomes and feels, but then again, that can be said for all of these steps.

7. Shoulders. The shoulders are probably the most underrated form element on this list. When running try to relax your shoulders, but be sure to keep your arms swinging correctly. This should help you fend off that pesky tired slouching for much longer.

8. Lean. This step is for people who have their form down perfectly and desire more speed. Watch this video to get a grasp on this. Skip to about one minute in and the video will explain other small form details to help improve speed further.

Well that’s all I’ve got for you. If anyone would like to suggest other aspects of form I should’ve included in this list, please feel free to message me about it. Thanks for reading hope this helped!

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If you’re new to running or want to step up your current game I suggest heading over to the iRunFar web page for gear reviews, race listings, club listings, video podcasts, and much more. 

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USA’s best: Prefontaine, Owens