The E=MC2 of running

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 t...

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...

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 st...

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 moth...

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 co...

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 secu...

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 b...

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...

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...

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, silv...

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 abo...

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...

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.run...

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.