7 simple ways to make your summer runs more enjoyable

Hot and humid days can make running a lot more challenging. Here are some simple tips to help keep your outdoor workout routine fun and safe throughout the summer months

Do it early

Studies show a direct relation between higher temperatures and lower performance for elite runners. For a 5K or 10K run, temperatures above 17 degrees Celsius can begin to hinder performance in female runners. In order to minimize the effects of hot summer days on your workout, schedule your run early in the morning or late in the afternoon when the temperatures aren’t as high.

Wear the correct gear

Try clothing made from technical fabrics designed to perform in the heat. Choose lightweight pieces that have vents or mesh to allow for maximum breathability,  fabrics that wick moisture in order to keep you dry, and itms that also have sun protection.

 

Don’t forget about your feet

It’s equally (if not more) important to wear socks that wick, cushion and keep you cool. Look for styles that feature padding around the ankle, in the heel and the ball of the foot, as well as some arch support, for added comfort. Toe socks are a great option to help prevent blisters from developing between your toes. For an extra oomph, dab a bit of peppermint oil to the soles of your feet before putting your socks on. Not only will this help keep your feet cool, but the oil’s antibacterial properties can help fight bacteria from developing during your run.

 

Kick hydration up a notch

It goes without saying that you need to pay extra attention to stay hydrated in hot weather. Although the amount of water you need varies depending on your body mass, the day’s temperature and the intensity of your workout, as a general guideline you should drink about half a litre of water before you start, and half a litre for every hour you run in order to maintain proper hydration. Make sure to not drink too much water as over-hydration can dilute your body’s blood sodium levels causing hyponatremia. The best way to know how much water you need to be drinking is to follow your thirst as your body is built with an amazing water-balancing mechanism.
A study has shown that adding a few drops of peppermint oil can also boost your performance by improving your blood pressure, heart rate and breathing.

Slow it down

As temperatures rise, the heart works harder to deliver blood to your muscles while also attempting to regulate body temperature, which can result in a higher heart rate at the same running pace. You’ll notice your pace automatically slows down as the days get hotter. Don’t fight it. You can safely run the same distance in the summer if you do so at a slower pace. Pay close attention to how you feel and add more walk breaks as needed.

 

Mind the chafing

Chafing can be worse in the summertime as sweat creates added friction between skin-to-skin and skin-to-clothing rubbing. Prevent this by wearing shorts that cover your upper thighs and a bra with flat or covered seams. Be sure the bra you’re wearing isn’t too tight as it can dig into the skin and chafe. You’ll also want to avoid clothing that’s too baggy since the added material can cause irritation. For other vulnerable areas, such as your underarms, apply sports lubricant or Vaseline.

Change your route

Temperatures in the city centre tend to be higher as concrete and asphalt retain more heat. Areas in shade and close to water, on the other hand, are typically cooler and breezier. Try taking your workout inside or outside of the city close to a wooded area with lots of shade, a lake, a river or the coastline. Not only will your environment feel cooler, it’ll likely be more picturesque, too.
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5 Essential Tips for Improving Running Form

Running. People either love it or loathe it more than anything. There’s no question that running for fitness can be a great way to improve many measures of health, including resting heart rate, blood pressure, body composition and bone density, among others. But how can we help our clients get the most out of their running, and turn “I guess I have to go for a run now” into “Is it time to run yet?!”

Here are a few tips you can offer clients that can help them improve their running economy and decrease their risk of injury so that they can enjoy the many benefits of running.

1. Start slowly

If your client has never been a runner, going out for a first “run” should be more of a brisk walk with a few short jogging intervals. Encourage your clients to try walking for 30 minutes and every five minutes, jog slowly for one minute. Over time, they can work toward jogging more and walking less, 30 to 60 seconds at a time. Once they have succeeded at 30 minutes of consecutive jogging, then they can begin to work on improving speed.

2. Ground contact

While jogging (slower form of running), it is important to be efficient with each foot strike. Ask your clients to think about contacting the ground with their mid-foot, rather than their heels. This way the foot will contact the ground under the hip and propel the body forward (when heel striking, the leg tends to act as a break and will slow the body down and put more stress on the knees).

3. Arm swing

While running, the arms should be swinging from the shoulders, with the elbows bent at about 90 degrees and the hands relaxed. Urge your clients to pretend they are holding two swords, one in each hand. If these swords cross over each other at any time during the arm swing, then the arms are crossing the body, which is a sign that energy is being wasted due to inefficient arm movements.

4. Body lean

The trunk should be tall, as if being pulled up from a string attached to the top of the head. Leading with the chest, the body should lean slightly forward (about 5 degrees) to propel the body in a forward direction. Encourage your clients to think of the trunk as a gas pedal in a car. Pressing it forward (not leaning forward) gently allows for an increase in speed.

5. Cadence

When an individual begins a running program, it may make sense to take long strides so as to cover as much ground as possible with each step. However, this can result in high ground-impact forces, which can lead to injury, early fatigue and inefficient running. Advise your clients to adjust their stride frequency to higher than 150 bpm (180 is ideal)—this would be the equivalent of running to Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” or Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” from Top Gun. 

Source : Jacqueline Crockford, MS, CSCS | ACE

Why We Still Need Cardio Training ..

 

Cardio training has really been taking a beating recently. In the strength-training world, it’s become trendy and fashionable to make a name for yourself by suggesting that no one ever do any form of cardio training ever again or all of your muscle mass will disappear. Why are we listening to people who can squat 600 pounds with a big gut and can barely move well?

Like many topics in fitness, the accepted view on what you “should” do swings from one ridiculous extreme to the other.

There is no question that the previously dominant view that people have to do long cardio sessions to get fit is incorrect. More isn’t better. But zero isn’t better, either.

Here’s what you need to know:

-Endurance—as a component of fitness—is essential for optimum health and function.

-Cardio increases blood volume, allowing more efficient buffering of acids produced during higher-intensity training.

-You don’t need nearly as much cardio as we used to think, but you need more than zero.

Endurance is an essential human capacity. It’s what allowed us to successfully evolve to the top of the food chain. Developing the ability to outlast our prey when hunting helped us obtain precious resources for survival. But the kind of endurance we had back then was developed at a higher intensity than the long, slow cardio training that was popular not too long ago.

Of more current interest, aerobic exercise changes the brain in ways that improve cognitive function and may have beneficial effects throughout the lifespan. Aerobically fit people have more fibrous and compact white matter, which is comprised of the bundles of axons that carry nerve signals from one brain region to another. More compact white matter is associated with faster and more efficient nerve activity. This provides a host of benefits to many mental and physical tasks. And aerobic exercise can help keep our minds sharp as we age. The goal of most strength training (or even cardio training) isn’t directly tied to a better brain, but I think it’s safe to assume that all of us want a sharp mind throughout our lives.  

With strength training, the goal is larger, stronger muscles and this means we have to perform shorter, more intense training. A limiting factor is the accumulation of acidic waste products in the muscle when performing an effort.

When the accumulation increases at a rate that is faster than your body can clear out, muscles begin to burn and further contractions become increasingly difficult. Your blood carries sodium bicarbonate to buffer the acidic state. Boosting the acid-buffering ability of the blood would push your fatigue point further out. A little aerobic training can make your anaerobic training better by increasing blood volume, which allows the blood to carry more sodium bicarbonate.

To get this benefit, you may need only one “traditional” cardio workout a week, but there is a better way.

If you’re reading this thinking I’m a big fan of cardio workouts, you’re wrong. I’d much rather be chasing a ball or a person playing a sport or outside in nature hiking or taking a short trail run to get my cardio training done. But life doesn’t always present opportunities to do those activities. I prefer higher-intensity strength training and faster explosive training. But it’s foolish to only train that way all the time. By performing interval training according to the ACE IFT model, you can get a lot of benefit in less time than “old school” cardio. I use this interval training two to three times per week for no more than 20 to 25 minutes per session, and have used it successfully with many clients since first learning it a few years ago.

There’s something inherently unnatural about climbing onto a machine and going absolutely nowhere while disconnecting yourself from nature. But sometimes circumstances like scheduling or weather make other options impossible. When doing this kind of training, it’s best to use the minimum effective dose so you devote more time to other forms of training or just other things in general.

And it’s also important to make clear that in no way am I advocating any boring exercise. Whatever you do should be engaging to both body and mind. That may mean using motivating music or some elements of play, competitiveness or reactivity. The moment I’m not engaged and get bored, I either change what I’m doing or I stop.

There’s not much need to do the long, boring, steady-state training of yesterday. Using modern, intelligent approaches to interval training gleans the most out of a minimum investment of time while still providing the benefits of aerobic training.

Source : Johnathan Ross / Ace 

Will The Popular Running Apps Get You Ready to Run?

With the new partnership between ACE and the Women’s Running Series, it is a good time to review and comment on some of the more popular and well-known running apps. It seems that I get an email every month from a fitness technology company touting a new running app. So, what do I look for in a running app? Are they really all that different? Most share the standard features and have millions of dedicated users. Check out my thoughts below, then tweet me your favorite running app and why.

RunKeeper – Free (with paid upgrade available)

RunKeeper is a popular Boston-based running app available in eight different languages. One of the first running apps, RunKeeper has a dedicated following of more than 20 million users. The app has an easy user interface that tracks stats like pace, distance and time. Add a sensor and monitor heart rate as well. It also comes with a goal-setting option and, if you need that extra motivation, a coach in your headphone with built-in audio cues. One of the features of the paid app provides live tracking, but use with caution. While your friends can track and see where you are on a map, so can others.

MapMyRun – Free (with paid upgrade available)

With the tag line “You pound the pavement, we provide the motivation. Plan each stride and learn from every route,” how can you not want to at least try MapMyRun. By using the built-in GPS on your mobile phone, MapMyRun will track your duration, distance, space, speed, elevation, route and calories burned (if you preset your body weight) on an interactive online map. On a business trip in Cleveland and looking for a place to run? Check out the thousands of training maps created by users just like you. (By the way, Cleveland has 5,382 routes and 350 courses.) You can even find a local running group with which to tag along. The paid MVP in app purchase is even smart enough to plan your route; you just tell the app how far you want to run and it finds the route for you.

Nike+ - Free

You don’t need to run in a pair of Nikes to use their app (but I am sure they’d like you to). Gone are the days of the sensor in your shoe—now all you need is your mobile phone and the Nike+ app. In addition to the standard tracking features of time, distance and pace, the app converts your runs into a Nike Fuel score, so you can challenge your non-running training partners to keep up with your pace. One of my favorite features of Nike+ is the live cheering option. Have you ever been on a 10K and needed just a little extra push? Use this app, share your run to Facebook or Path and when anyone likes your mile postings, you will hear a cheer in your headphones. My brother ran the DC marathon a few years ago, and I tracked his progress and cheered along the way, even though I was 5,000 miles away. Same caution of live sharing as mentioned in RunKeeper.

Zombie Run - $1.99 and up

What if you could make a game out of your runs? Now you can with Zombie Run.
Thousands of runners experience an “epic adventure” during their run that motivates them to run faster and farther than ever before. I know I’d run faster to avoid being eaten by a zombie. New to running and want to train for that upcoming 5K in a few months? They have a sister app with an eight-week training program. Zombie Run takes your own music and combines it with an action-packed game while you burn those calories. (And there is no truth to the rumor that Zombies don’t like McDonalds and that if you stop for a snack, they will track you down.)

Strava – Free (with paid upgrade available)

Designed originally for athletes, Strava takes social fitness to a new level. What if your training partner can’t sneak away from the office at lunch for your team run? Or perhaps you’ve moved to a new city? Use Strava and get back that sense of camaraderie and friendly competition that drove you to achieve your best when training with others. The free version allows for unlimited activities per month with detailed maps and activity analysis. You can challenge friends through virtual challenges and watch their progress. The premium version for $59 a year includes progress and performance goals, leaderboards and additional analysis features.
People use running apps for all sorts of reasons. Some use the app to track milestones, others to brag to their friends about their personal best. No matter the reason, if you get that extra motivation to exercise from technology, it gets two thumbs up in my book. So the next time you run around the block, consider trying one of the many running apps. Like I say “… an app a day keeps the doctor away.”

Note: Extended use of GPS available in many running apps will drain your battery.

Source : Ted Vickey, M.S., is the Senior Consultant - Fitness Technology for ACE