Gear - part 1

One of the best things about running it doesn't require a lot of gear. To start with all you need is some properly fitting running shoes (and they don't have to be expensive) any old t-shirt and shorts or tracksuit bottoms and off you go. And if you limit yourself to running the occasional 5k or 10k race every summer that's pretty much all you ever need.


But once you start clocking up more mileage, running longer races, and running in all weathers, you can make your life a bit more comfortable if you get some more specialist clothes. For example cotton t-shirts are fine if you're running a short distance in cool weather, but run more than 10km, or in hot or wet weather, and chafing will start to cause problems, and running in a sweat-soaked t-shirt is pretty uncomfortable. Similarly, once you start running half marathons or longer, any little minor niggles with gear can, over the course of two or three hours, become major problems. So since I started running I've tried out quite a lot of different gear and it's probably worth talking about it for anyone who might be just starting out.


Starting from the ground up, I've always run in Reebok shoes. It's not one of the leading brands in terms of specialist running shoes - it's more of a fashion sportswear company I think - but their shoes seem to suit me (and they're also cheaper than a lot of the more well-known competitors). I bought my first pair, Reebok Premiers, about a year and a half before I started running and they sat in the cupboard gathering dust for a while before, in a fit of New Year enthusiasm in 2007, I put them on and went for a breathless, and very short, jog around my local park in Edinburgh.


Since then I've had four more pairs, one of which I've worn out but the remaining ones are still usable and very comfortable. As I mentioned, they are not expensive shoes, and it's often possible to save money on running shoes by waiting until a manufacturer releases a new version of a particular shoe - often the older version gets sold off cheaply.


In terms of socks, so far I've tended to wear any thin, comfortable sports socks I could find. The most comfortable ones I have are made by Saucony and were sent by the Brighton Marathon team as an apology when the training t-shirt I'd ordered from them was very late to arrive. Unfortunately I've not found them for sale anywhere else, so I'm still on the lookout for some really comfortable ones.

I wear Ron Hill tracksters in winter and their shorts in summer. The tracksters are maybe a bit old-fashioned but they have a good balance of stretchiness, comfort and support, and they're warm enough for most winter days. Their shorts are light and comfortable and most have either internal key pockets or external zip pockets which are handy for car keys, mobile etc.

I did try a pair of New Balance shorts but they weren't so comfortable so I'll be sticking with Ron Hills for now. Apart from anything else, it's nice to support a British company.

I also have some skins compression shorts and tights. The tights are most useful for wearing after a long run and seem to help prevent muscle stiffness and soreness. I have also worn them when running, and they are useful for extra warmth and support on really cold icy days worn underneath my tracksters, but they are a little too constricting to be comfortable to wear for every run, and the seams can be a little uncomfortable.

The shorts are useful in spring and autumn when it's too hot for tracksters but not hot enough for shorts yet. Again though, the seams can chafe a bit when you've been wearing them for a while. But they are comfortable to run in and give your thighs and backside some support.

Briefly, another good weekend's running - 4 miles in Dulwich on Friday lunchtime, 15 miles in Greenwich on Saturday (another new distance record for me) and a rather leisurely and hungover 4 miles in Hertfordshire on Sunday after a late Saturday night at a Burns supper with friends.

So, a good start to the 1000 mile / marathon challenge, with 89 miles completed in January.

Why CLIC Sargent ?

In an earlier post I gave an example of why I wanted to support Practical Action for my "marathon challenge", and I'll talk a lot more about this in future posts. But I wanted to talk a little about why I chose CLIC Sargent as the other charity I'm running for in 2011.

Like most people, I have relatives and friends who have suffered various forms of cancer, and sadly have lost some of them to the disease. All of them, were, however adults, and while the premature death of anyone is tragic, it's at least some consolation that all of them enjoyed many years of mostly healthy life.

We know more about the causes of cancer than we used to, and it's clear that some cancers can be avoided by choosing to live a more healthy lifestyle - by avoiding alcohol, smoking, and eating a more healthy diet.

According to Sarah Woolnough, Cancer Research UK’s director of policy: “We do know that up to half of all cancers could be prevented by changes to lifestyle such as giving up smoking, keeping a healthy weight and cutting down on alcohol. People can also reduce their risk by eating a healthy balanced diet that is high in fibre, fruit and vegetables and low in red and processed meat. All these things, along with taking regular exercise and avoiding sunburn, can reduce the risk of developing cancer.”

While this wasn't widely known to, say, my parents' or grandparents' generations, it is known now and so we can all do more now to minimise our chances of developing cancer in adult life. Of course, I know that there are many cancers which have no real correlation with lifestyle factors, and there is still plenty of work to do to identify the causes of all cancers and to develop effective treatments for them.

For children to be diagnosed with cancer seems to be a particularly harsh twist of fate, both for the children themselves and for their parents. They have had little time to enjoy a healthy childhood, and must undergo lengthy and sometimes unpleasant hospital treatment. Fortunately the outlook for childhood cancer is improving, and according to CLIC Sargent's website, seven out of ten children survive childhood cancer. But it seems to me that children suffering from cancer are the ultimate "innocent victims".

CLIC Sargent provides a host of services to support children with cancer and their families:

• providing nurses and social workers to support families;


• running a helpline for parents of children with cancer;


• paying for holidays for children with cancer and their families;


• providing "homes from home" to make visiting remote specialist hospitals easier;

It seems to me that all of this work is critical in helping children and their parents cope with the traumatic experience of a cancer diagnosis and treatment, maximise the chances of children surviving - and helping parents deal with bereavement in the sad cases when treatment is ultimately unsuccessful.

And that's why I'm running to raise funds for CLIC Sargent.

Unknown territory

So, this was the week when I entered unknown territory - until yesterday I'd never run further than half marathon distance, but I completed 14.06 miles in Greenwich Park in a time of 2 hours 22 minutes 49 seconds, an average pace of 10mins 09secs per mile. Very happy with my run - while I was starting to stiffen up in the hamstring area towards the end, I didn't run out of energy and could have gone on a little longer.


I also wore the fuel belt I plan to use for the marathon for the first time - from what I've read I need to eat/drink 30-60g of carbohydrate per hour so I intend to fill the two bottles in the belt with slightly watered down fruit juice and a sprinkle of salt, and take some jaffa cakes and jelly babies to make up the rest of my carb requirements.


I tried all of this out yesterday and it seemed to work fine, although I think the pocket in the fuel belt will be too small for all of the food I'll need come marathon day so I may have to wear another belt or put some in my shorts pockets.


Long slow run aside, I did a couple of 4 mile runs in Dulwich on Friday and today, and while I didn't complete my full training plan for this week which also included a 7 mile run at race pace, I'm pretty happy with how things went considering the knee trouble I've had over the past few weeks.


So my total for the week was 22.4 miles, bringing my overall total to 65.61. Next week my long slow run increases to 15 miles. I hope to run 4 miles on Friday and Sunday again, but maybe fit in another run during the week if I can.

A mixed week

I decided to give my knee a rest this week until Friday, in the hope it would be completely healed by then. Unfortunately not - and after 6 laps of Dulwich on Friday lunchtime much of the old pain was back. It's a dull achy pain, not a sharp "you must stop running now" one, so it is possible to run with it - but the nagging feeling I might be doing myself some longer-term damage remains. A bit of self-diagnosis via the web and advice from my wife who also runs, suggests it might be related to the ITB (the muscle which connects the hip to the knee) which frequent runners find stiffens up over time, causing the tendons attached to the knee to pull the kneecap slightly out of alignment - causing pain.


So I did some stretching of the ITB on Friday night and my knee did feel a little better by the following morning, so I set off for Greenwich with a plan of doing my 9 miles on the top tier of the park like last week, running on the grass as much as possible. I managed four laps (6 miles) but by then the pain was getting a little more acute and I walked for a lap to give it a rest. The pain having subsided a bit I managed another running lap for a total of 7.5 miles for the day, but a not very satisfactory outcome.


We then drove up to Oxfordshire to visit some friends, and after a couple of hours on the motorway with my knee in the one position it was again getting sore, and I didn't hold out much hope of doing the planned short run on Sunday morning. However I did plenty of ITB stretching and when I woke up today my knee felt distinctly better. So after 6.5 laps of the nearby park (pictured) later I felt decidedly more cheerful. While my knee wasn't pain free, it felt better than it has for a while.


So my plan is to give it some more rest again this week until Friday, maybe try it out with another gentle run in the park (maybe 4 miles) and then if it is ok will give the scheduled 14 mile long slow run a go on Saturday.


In between my runs I had another swimming lesson on Thursday, which at least helps me get some exercise and shouldn't do my knee any additional damage.


Total miles for this week were 16.94 bringing my total for the year to 43.21.


(Looking forward to a future blog with no mention of knee pain).

Sore knee

Since I started running three years ago I've been lucky enough to be largely injury free - I only had to pull out of a race once due to a sore calf. But my right knee has been sore since the New Year and as a result I've had to take it easy with running this week. After my 11 mile run last Monday it was very sore, particularly when walking up and downstairs, so I've restricted my running this week to a gentle 3 lap jog around Dulwich on Friday, and then a 12 mile run at Greenwich yesterday where I avoided the hills by sticking to the top level of the park, and ran on the grass as much as possible to minimise the impact on my knee.



I think I may have overdone the running over the Christmas holidays, and maybe ramped up my mileage too quickly when I started the marathon training. Also I did a lot of sitting still over the holidays, either in an armchair or in the car driving to Scotland and back. And I was running on hard surfaces a bit more than usual. Anyway, whatever the reason, I'm going to take things easy for a week or two, avoid hill running, and run on grass or gravel wherever possible.



Aside from the knee pain yesterday's run at Greenwich was good - I found a lap on the top level of the park which was around 1.5 miles and did 8 laps in just over 2 hours. Quite a good pace, although I was starting to flag a bit towards the end - this is really on the limit of the distance I can run without taking on food, so when I do my next long run in a couple of weeks time I think I'll be taking my fuel belt with me and starting to use energy drinks and some food (jelly babies and jaffa cakes is the current plan) so I can get used to eating / drinking on the move and make sure the belt is comfortable.



So this week I've missed out on a 3 mile and 6 mile run, and I'm planning not to run again until next Friday when hopefully my knee will be much better. And next week is a "step down" week in my plan, so the "long slow run" next Saturday is only 9 miles.



This morning I did a bit of "cross-training" - a swimming lesson. And I have another on Thursday, which helps to compensate a little for the lack of running.



Finally, my CLIC Sargent T-shirts have arrived - I'm planning to wear one for the BUPA London 10000 in May. Thanks to Ceris @ CLIC Sargent for sending them through so quickly !

Off and running

Well, my challenge is up and running now - I clocked up just over 11 miles this morning, doing 5 and a half laps of Greenwich park in 1hr56, a pace of 10 mins 25 secs per mile, which is fine for training although a little slower than I'm aiming for in the race. The first two or three laps were a bit of a struggle, but things got a little easier on the fourth and fifth laps. The park was nice and quiet, most of London presumably either still away from home or in bed sleeping off their New Year excesses.


I'm more or less up to date with my marathon training plan, which involves 4 runs per week. It's going to be a bit of a struggle completing 4 runs every week for the next 3 months, since running at lunchtimes isn't really possible at the moment due to work commitments, but I plan to at least do the long slow run on Saturday, a shorter run on Sunday, and the medium length run on a weekday, and I'll fit the fourth run in when I can.


Here's the current state of the plan:



I'll also not be able to do all of the runs on the allotted days due to normal life getting in the way, but I reckon as long as I keep up with the long slow runs once a week and the medium runs midweek I should be right.


If I complete all of the training on the plan, I should be well on the way to 500 miles by the end of April, which should make the remaining 8 months of the year easier, mileage-wise.


So, a good start to the challenge, and I also received my first sponsorship the other day - thanks Mum !