Maggie's Running Podcast

What is the longest distance you have ever run? For me, I think it's 28 miles. However, this weekend, British athlete Jo Zakrzewski ran 255 miles in 48 hours. In this week's episode, I talk about this amazing achievement. 

What happens when you are training for a marathon and you get injured or sick? I've often heard people say that it won't have a big impact on your overall performance in the marathon. But is this true? Maybe that's the case if you just need to take off a couple of days, but what about a week or two weeks? Is it OK to take this much time off from marathon training or will that actually impact on your finishing time? A study by Feely et al looked at Strava data from 300,000 recreational runners. They found that about half of marathon runners had a break in their training. However, they were able to identify runners who had run at least 2 marathons, one with a break in training and one without to compare the impact of the break on the overall time achieved for the marathon. In this episode I look into what they found. 

In this week's episode, Maggie looks at a paper by Boere et al (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-26093-2) in Nature Scientific reports where the authors look whether a short walk outside is better than a short walk inside.While running on the treadmill can be great, especially if the weather is bad, are there actually hidden benefits of running outside. Maggie discusses the paper's findings and speculates of the reasons behind the results. 

In this week's episode, Maggie gets annoyed with somebody who says that running in the cold is just about having the right kit. She also talks about her excitement over this year's Spine race. If she were ever to run the race herself, she might not make it past the Green Dragon pub and tea rooms - sounds far too tempting not to just stay there. Link to Katie Holmes website is here: Run Young 50

Are trail runners as good as road runners? An article published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36515604/) looked at differences in economy, biomechanics, strength and power between trail runners and road runners. I talk a bit about this article and the differences in running different disciplines. I also provide a recap on how I'm getting on with my New Year's resolution to run at least 1 km each day and, I hope, provide some useful insights and advice. 

Sudden cardiac death in athletes is extremely rare. However, a recent letter in the Scandinavian Journal of Immunology (Polykretis and McCullough - Rational harm-benefit assessment by age group are required for continued COVID-19 vaccination suggests that there have been as many of these types of deaths in the past 2 years as in the previous 38 years! Is that true? In this episode I looked into further evidence to see if these claims were true and whether, as Polykretis and McCollough suggest,  it has anything to do with COVID-19 vaccination. In particular, I looked at a paper by Bonaventura et al (Risks of the Athletic Field Revisited: Report of Unusual Occurrences of Cardiac Arrest and Sudden Death in Professional Soccer Players) published in the American Journal of Medicine looking at sudden cardiac death in professional football players in Europe between 2002 and 2022.Whatever the cause, I think it is important that people learn how to use a defibrillator so that they can help if somebody does have a card

Welcome back to the E=mc2 of running for Season 2! In this episode, Maggie talks about how to set a New Year's resolution (that you might actually be able to stick to). She talks about her own New Year's resolution and also gives an update on where she currently is with her running. No science this week but some helpful advice. 

You've heard of supershoes but have you heard of superpants?  I really want a pair of superpants? These are definitely the next thing in running technology to make you go faster.  Find out more about the science behind them on the podcast or, alternatively, follow the links in the excellent article from Outside magazine https://www.outsideonline.com/health/training-performance/running-exoskeleton-research-2022/

Do you like running in the dark? What about if it's cold and wet and dark? I've really struggled this past couple of weeks getting out and running when it has been dark.I tried to find out if there was anything in the scientific literature to support my case against actually running in the dark. Alas, I found little of significance. I did, however, come across an interesting story which, I think, gives me a perfect excuse for not running in the dark. Find out more in this episode of the podcast.

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 the weather conditions for the races and assessed whether the weather had made any impact on the times. You can find the papers here (from May 2021) and here (from July 2021).Perhaps we will have to do our own research to find out the ideal conditions for our own performances. As for me, I will, no doubt, continue to be a bit of a fair weather runner, avoiding the rain wherever possible. 

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 Olympic Games. 

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 study involving 32 Ethiopian distance runners and a study where 20 well trained runners did uphill interval training under 5 different conditions.  Did they see improvements in performance outcome and what were the benefits to this type of training?Our own athletes have been busy running, skipping and bounding uphills and anecdotal evidence suggests that this is beneficial. There are plenty of guides out there to help you start doing uphill training. The main thing is not to try to do too much too soon 5-6 hill repeats of 50-60m would be a good start progressing to an increased number of reps and/or increased distance

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 mother and daughter best time. Here's the link to Alice Wright's 1 hour run https://youtu.be/PyqrxqH9Za4

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 course, the sorry plight of my own running, which is beating no world records at the moment.

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 secure his place in the Kenyan team? I also delved deeper into the use of exercise in cancer treatment. The results were really fascinating. Why have I never heard of exercise being used in cancer treatment before?

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 be most important for masters marathon runners.

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 marathon trials in London. The main science focus of the podcast though is on running after giving birth and whether there are any advantages or disadvantages to doing this.