Maggie's Running Podcast

I decided that my Sunday podcast during lockdown would be slightly different. As a Christian I find many similarities between running and living a Christian life and there are several verses in the bible that allude to this. So, I thought I'd share one of my favourites with you and talk a little about it. This week it is Isaiah 40: 30-31.

What is your 'local area' when it comes to exercising during lockdown. The rules allow us to exercise with one other person in our local area but 2 women were fined for breaking the rules when they met at a reservoir 5 miles from their homes. So what is local and how far from our homes can we run?

What happens if it snows? Can you still run? In this podcast I give you my top tips for running in the snow. I'm only talking about British snow here (which is usually rather pathetic) and not great piles of snow like you get in some other countries. I think you'll find my tips quite useful but the main thing is - take care.

How's your lockdown going so far? I've got a little tip today that might help you just to break up your Zoom meeting/Google meet filled day while also providing a boost to your running training.

Every day during lockdown I intend to put out a short podcast to motivate, inspire, encourage, amuse or just entertain my running friends. Here's today's episode - day 1 of Lockdown 3.0.

I was lucky enough to get an interview with Mara Yamauchi for this week's podcast. Mara is a double Olympian, competing in the 2008 and 2012 marathon events. She is also, notably, Britian's second fastest female marathon runner ever with a PB of 2:23:12. It was so lovely speaking to her, she was so interesting and had lots of helpful things to say whether you are training for a marathon or if you are just running for fun. I certainly felt motivated and enthused about running after talking to her. I hope you will be too after listening to the podcast. Happy New Year and enjoy the episode.

It's been a weird kind of year for all of us. It's been frustrating and crazy and difficult, but it's also been an opportunity to learn, to help each other and to improve. I started the year wondering if I could be bothered to run competitively anymore and I finished the year fitter, stronger and faster. I learnt a lot of interesting things along the way and I share my year with you in this week's podcast.

This week I talk to Arran Kearney. He's just returned from his first term at college in the USA. We chat about how you can apply to study in the US, how you choose a suitable college to go to, what it's like being there, differences in training and the sports culture in US compared with UK. It's a really great insight into what it's like to study on a running scholarship in the USA. Arran also has a blog where he details his time studying in Kansas https://arransnotesfromtheprairie.blogspot.com

Has your exercise level increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic? Certainly some people took up exercise back in March but has that continued? How difficult is it to be motivated to go out for a run on cold, dark evenings? Are there ways of making exercise more fun? These are the questions we tackle on this week's podcast with Maggie and Peter Cooper.

What’s your best running streak? I mean how many days in a row have you run. Mine’s about 10 days. Charlie Slack’s is more that 250 days and he’s only 7 years old. In this week’s podcast I interviewed Charlie and his dad, Tim, and asked why he was running a mile a day. We found out what motivated Charlie to take on such a challenge, where the money he has raised is going and how he has managed to run every day for such a long time. Please give generously on Charlie’s Virgin Money Giving page (search Charlie’s Challeng – Run 1 mile a day or visit https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-display/showROFundraiserActivities?userUrl=AlexSlack3)

What if everything we had been told about a healthy diet was wrong? What if fat didn’t make you fat? What if breakfast cereals weren’t actually made to provide you with a good meal to start to the day but were invented to suppress sexual desire? These are the sort of questions explored in Charlie Spedding’s book, Stop Feeding us Lies. I interviewed Charlie about his book and about his marathon running and, in particular, about that bronze medal in the 1984 Olympic Games marathon. There is a blog post that accompanies this podcast on https://maggiesrunningpodcast.blogspot.com

I was interested when I heard about the Mymo device, a small sensor that you can use to test your running gait. You place the sensor in a little pocket in a kind of 'half-sock' and run for 1 min (for each foot) to carry out the test. The test is quick and simple and can be done on a treadmill or outside on a flat surface. How good was it though and was there any scientific evidence to show that it was accurate? I spoke to the inventor, Craig Downs, and one of the research scientists who carried out research on the product, Fraser Young, about Mymo, what it is, what it does and what its potential might be (see mymo.co.uk for more details). The research paper we talk about is available on maggiesrunningpodcast.blogspot.com

How might barefoot running help? How can you transition to barefoot running or how can you incorporate some barefoot running into your weekly routine? These are some of the questions I discussed with my friend Anne Rosbottom (a Pose Method Running Technique Specialist, a Born to Run Technique Coach and a UKA Leader in Running Fitness http://www.annerosbottom.co.uk). We based our discussion around a review about barefoot running by Peter Francis and Grant Scholfield called “From barefoot hunter gathering to shod pavement pounding, Where to from here? A narrative review.” We discussed our own experiences of barefoot running as well as the scientific evidence for advantages of barefoot running.

This week we interview Kalie Demerjian who recently came 3rd in the 100 mile Javelina Jundred, we look at how she started running, her first marathon and what it was like to run a crazy 100 mile race in the desert.

Have you ever wondered whether having big feet is an advantage when running? This week we look at a paper which compares the feet of 400m sprinters and untrained members of the public. Peter and Maggie had fun discussing the findings.

Is there a secret to running an even paced marathon? What factors may help you to not slow down in the second half of the race? We look at how you might be able to improve your pacing strategy for a marathon and reveal some of the secrets of running a better marathon.

Do you listen to music while you're running? We investigate whether there is any basis to suggest that listening to loud music when you're running could put you at great risk of injury.

In this special episode, Maggie discusses a paper about the difference in training of Kenyan and European athletes with Ronan Kearney, senior coach with the Wirral Endurance Programme. Why are the Kenyans so successful and what are the differences in the training that they do and the training that elite European athletes do?

Is one of your legs stronger than the other and does this impact on your running economy? We take a look at a paper that analyses asymmetry in adolescent runner and whether it affected their running. Maggie also did a crazy orienteering challenge at the weekend in a rather up and down week.

In this week's episode we look at recovery. Specifically Maggie reviews Good to Go by Christie Aschwandan a book about how to eat, sleep and rest like a champion. Have you ever wondered whether protein shakes, ice baths, massage etc. work? Well this is a book for you. If you are particularly interested in finding more about supplements then have a listen to Ross Tucker's The Real Science of Sport podcast where he has an excellent episode about supplements.