Maggie's Running Podcast

Can running help protect you against COVID-19? I look at a paper that talks about the effects of exercise on the immune system, particularly how exercise may be able to help protect the immune system from deteriorating as we age. I also discuss the beneficial effects our muscles have on our immune system when we exercise.

If you are currently injured then this one is definitely for you. We look at an interesting article about how your running gait might be causing your injury, but the good news is that there is something you can do about it.

This week we did an interval session on the track and everybody seemed to record different distances on their GPS watches so in this week's episode we look at a paper about the accuracy of GPS watches. Can you rely on the data that they give you and are there some conditions where they are more or less accurate? Here's a link to the article https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7381051/?report=printable

This week I've been doing a bit of cross-training aka messing about with the kids doing a bit of climbing and canoeing. But, can incorporating cross-training help improve your running? This week I look at a paper from the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine (2020, 19, 508 https://www.jssm.org/) which compared high intensity interval training either on a bike or running on the track in a group of middle aged female runners. The authors looked at whether it made a difference to how fast the women could run 10k. The results were interesting.

Just how fast could I run with our dog? I've never taken him out running before but would it be an advantage if I got him fit for running 5k? Should I be aiming at the world record? In this week's episode I look into the work of canicross and find out what advantage running with our dog might actually have on my 5k time.

How do you beat a world record? Or how do you beat your personal best? Well, one of the secrets might be running at an even pace. We delve into this a bit deeper in this week's episode. Is it always best to try to run at an even pace or do we need to think outside the box a bit?

Can exercise make you more intelligent? Will it prevent dementia? In this week's episode we look at a book called Spark by John Ratey about exercise and the brain and it has some fascinating insights.

On the 40th anniversary of that epic Olympic 800m battle between Steve Ovett and Seb Coe, I read an interesting article on Fast Running .com about Steve Ovett's training and wondered what we could learn from his training. I also talk about my week of running and progress.

This week is the final of the virtual 5km mob match. We needed every person we possibly knew to run for our team which meant enlisting all eligible members of my family. None of my family have actually done any running (apart from last week's 1km run) for months. How would they get on? Would they make it? Would they actually get out of the door? Find out in this week's episode.

The result of our epic virtual Egg and Spoon race is announced. As Maggie tries on new running shoes we ask can your running shoes make you run faster? And we've discovered new ways to make training/racing more interesting. All in this week's episode.

I'm learning that it takes quite a lot of effort to get fit, running is better with friends and I'm not too sluggish over 5k.

Can running up hills improve your speed? I've been trying out some different hill sessions over the past few weeks and it might, just might be improving my fitness and speed. I've also been chasing children round an athletics track.

There's been a bit of a gap but that doesn't mean we haven't been running. In this week's podcast the gap is explained and Maggie talks about training during lockdown.

This week there's been a bit of running and a cross country race (for the kids) but we finish by talking about the benefits of the low carb, high fat diet that we have been investigating.

There were no races this week but Maggie joined the group from the club for some hill reps while Peter did his own version of hill reps with our youngest child.

It was the Northern Road Relays at the weekend. We chat about how that went and why some people were disqualified. We also chat about how the rest of the family got on with their running this week.

This week Maggie went to the North West Road Relays so that's mainly what we talk about this week.

This week Maggie went to London, we talk about how the running is going and look forward to this weekend's road relays

We've been trying to get our eldest son out running. How do we encourage our kids to run? We also discuss how what we do in our daily lives can play a part in our fitness and training.

We've become middle aged, but are we doing enough exercise and, more importantly, are our listening habits suitable. We discuss the progress in Maggie's injury and look forward to races to come.