Running and stuff

[danny.]

Also, if you are doing a lot of running get a gait analysis done. Leicester Running Shop on Clarenden Park Road or The Running Fox can help you out with this.

Or just learn to run properly. Did you see the panorama documentary the other week on various sports things including shoes and gait tests?

[SOCCERROO FOX]

Or just learn to run properly. Did you see the panorama documentary the other week on various sports things including shoes and gait tests?

Even harder to self diagnose

[danny.]

True, but there are loads of videos on youtube and if you can run with someone else or a club you can help each other. Most people don't seem to make any attempt though.

[Guest]

This is where gyms and treadmills are useful. I use the mirrors to check my technique. I may not be quick, but at least I'm doing it properly.

Sadly, for a lot of women (and a few men) their physical build isn't conducive to good running, and they will never be "technically good" runners. They don't seem to have half the injuries I get, and that's because they've had their gait analysed, and wear the correct shoes.

Technique is important, but so is equipment. The combination of both is what prevents, or causes, injury.

For the record, neither are responsible for my injury proneness. I suffer with hypermobility syndrome, and I'm inherently more susceptible.

[FoxesAreBlue]

Or just learn to run properly. Did you see the panorama documentary the other week on various sports things including shoes and gait tests?

Yeah I saw that - I agreed with some of that programme and not with other parts. The bit about running shoes I found particularly interesting. If you are the sort of person who is just off out for a jog around the block a few times then I totally agree - a gait analysis and £80-£150 trainers are probably not really worth your time and cash. A £25 pair of entry level Ascis (or whatever) will do you nicely.

Its when you take your running more seriously - there's not many people out here - myself included, who have the biomechanical knowledge to spot their bad technique, or the mental will power to un-learn the natural technique that they have used from birth and re-learn a new one.

Also (and there's a high chance I may be mistaken here, my memory may be fooling me), I remember my opinion of that programme went down when they suggested that a human can easily run a marathon without carbs or hydration. Yes it highlighted the problem of hypernatraemia. But to suggest NO water or carbs at all?!... (again I stand to be corrected here)

Sometimes it can be fashionable to bash the big, bad, faceless multinational brands.

[danny.]

Yeah I saw that - I agreed with some of that programme and not with other parts. The bit about running shoes I found particularly interesting. If you are the sort of person who is just off out for a jog around the block a few times then I totally agree - a gait analysis and £80-£150 trainers are probably not really worth your time and cash. A £25 pair of entry level Ascis (or whatever) will do you nicely.

Its when you take your running more seriously - there's not many people out here - myself included, who have the biomechanical knowledge to spot their bad technique, or the mental will power to un-learn the natural technique that they have used from birth and re-learn a new one.

Also (and there's a high chance I may be mistaken here, my memory may be fooling me), I remember my opinion of that programme went down when they suggested that a human can easily run a marathon without carbs or hydration. Yes it highlighted the problem of hypernatraemia. But to suggest NO water or carbs at all?!... (again I stand to be corrected here)

Sometimes it can be fashionable to bash the big, bad, faceless multinational brands.

100% agree, I know loads of people who all know they run terribly (and are doing 20-30 miles a week) but basically just chuck new shoes and gait tests at the problem, never gets solved though in many cases I have seen, the best that normally happens is a bad knee clears up and then they get shin splints, or achilles problems, or plantar fasciitis, and the circle goes on and on.

Also, you don't need to spent £80-150 on trainers, I regularly run with no trainers at all, you have everything you need in your feet/legs to run without anything else.

I think some bits of the programme were brand-bashing (panorama always has a bit of that!) but a lot of it seemed to make sense. I know from repeated injury experiences for myself and other people I know personally that gait testing is generally bs, the only time I have seen people become injury free is to get some very minimal neutral shoes/no shoes and sort their form out.

From what I remember about the carbs/hydration they definitely said you need to hydrate, just not a 500ml of lucozade every 2 miles, which apparently some people seem to do. They were saying on short runs/sessions of say 30 mins there was no point having a sports drink or water, as by the time it got into your system you would have finished your run. You def. need some kind of energy on a marathon distance run or longer, but most people don't ever run those kind of distances so it's pointless.

[FoxesAreBlue]

100% agree, I know loads of people who all know they run terribly (and are doing 20-30 miles a week) but basically just chuck new shoes and gait tests at the problem, never gets solved though in many cases I have seen, the best that normally happens is a bad knee clears up and then they get shin splints, or achilles problems, or plantar fasciitis, and the circle goes on and on.

Also, you don't need to spent £80-150 on trainers, I regularly run with no trainers at all, you have everything you need in your feet/legs to run without anything else.

I think some bits of the programme were brand-bashing (panorama always has a bit of that!) but a lot of it seemed to make sense. I know from repeated injury experiences for myself and other people I know personally that gait testing is generally bs, the only time I have seen people become injury free is to get some very minimal neutral shoes/no shoes and sort their form out.

From what I remember about the carbs/hydration they definitely said you need to hydrate, just not a 500ml of lucozade every 2 miles, which apparently some people seem to do. They were saying on short runs/sessions of say 30 mins there was no point having a sports drink or water, as by the time it got into your system you would have finished your run. You def. need some kind of energy on a marathon distance run or longer, but most people don't ever run those kind of distances so it's pointless.

I suppose that the whole aime of the programme - to divide opinion, as for my experiences, the analysis and subsequent shoes have been a god-send and (touch wood) I have been injury free ever since. We'll just have to agree to disagree here! I run in Asics GT-2160s They are quite big I admit but by god I love 'em. That said - I do believe that the gait analysis is not an exact or perfect science and it would depend on who does it for you. If you just get some teenager in sweatshop who's only run is a jog down the street to get the coffee then the knowledge just isn't going to be there.

You are probably right about the water/lucozade though. In London I think it was water every 2 miles and Lucozade drinks every 5 - no wonder people complain of the race being too slow and the risk of over-hydration!! I bet some people with their masses of energy gels strapped to their waist finish without a calorie deficit and then go on and eat a (obligitory!) huge celebration meal!

[FoxesAreBlue]

Oh, as an aside, if you want an isotonic sports drink to hydrate yourself after a run, and don't want to fork out for a lucozade/powerade the he's your recipe:

1/2 Pint Fresh Orange Juice

1/2 Pint Water

Small Pinch of Salt

I don't read the running magazines but if this isn't in at least one of them every couple of months then I would be very surprised!

[SystonFox]

Just adding a teaspoon of sugar and two pinches of salt to any cordial based drink will have the same effect of a lucozade/powerade for around 95% cheaper. That's essentially all these "added electrolytes" are.

However, I can't recommend zero hi5 tabs enough.around £4-£7 per tube (20) pop one before or during a good old run it'll help no end.

*in my opinion

[Guest]

Fuelling and hydration is very much a personal thing. You can only find out through trial and error what works for you.

For example, both me and the OH ran our quickest half marathon times at Loughborough in March.

I was quickest, and apart from drinking a bottle of Gatorade about an hour before the race, I managed to get a mouthful of water from the last drinks station, at about 10.5 miles, and that was it.

The OH had a Gatorade before the race, and he had an energy drink with him during the race. He also managed to get water at all three water stations.

After the race, he needed to eat, and craved carbs. I struggled to get the energy gel in the finishing pack down me, and couldn't physically eat for about an hour aft the race.

I'm 23cm shorter, and about 30-35kg lighter than him.

[danny.]

I'm 23cm shorter, and about 30-35kg lighter than him.

Your usage of metric saddens me.

[Guest]

Your usage of metric saddens me.

I prefer it. Nobody knows what I'm going on about.

[danny.]

It's true, literally no idea. I haven't a clue what 30-35kg weights, could be the weight of a typical north american, or an anorexic. It's all a mystery.

[FoxesAreBlue]

I'm a fan of the metric too. Me and danny. are going to fall out and have a good old FT tiff.

[SOCCERROO FOX]

If i want to really smash out a run scoop full of this in about 500ml of water 30minutes prior really gets me going.

[danny.]

I'm a fan of the metric too. Me and danny. are going to fall out and have a good old FT tiff.

bring your boxing gloves to the Leicester marathon!

[Nick]

Anyone have any idea what's up with me.

I'm 22 and I don't think my knees should be giving up on me already but I've had this achey pain under and around my right knee when I push off of my right foot for a while now. I can't pinpoint it exactly but it's on the front, to the right and kind of around the side. It's been a couple of months at least and it's getting me down now I haven't been able to run or play football properly for a while either and I'm joining a football team soon. My right leg just doesn't feel right, but it's not anything I can easily describe to a doctor, it's just always there and I don't know what to do.

Can an infection cause this? Basically a few months back, playing indoor football on that sanpaper-like surface I got some proper nastly gashes (giggity) on my knees and they went all manky and pussy for a few weeks. I was basically in a collision with a goalkeeper and landed on my knee pretty badly. There's still some nasty scars there but it doesn't seem to hurt at the exact points but I don't know how the human body works. I was able to play afterwards but it'd make sense if that was the point I knackered it.

Anyway, cheers for any help.

I had pain under both knees when doing marathons and other races.

I did two things:

i) I went to see a podiatrist who made casts of the shape of my feet and gave me two sets of insoles.

ii) Sounds daft but I stopped 'putting my feet up' whilst lying on the sofa or putting my legs on the coffee table without having support under my knees. When your legs are 'straight' out in front of you and raised whilst seated the weight goes on the knees, or the back of the knee so to speak. I now ensure they are never made subject to that pressure.

I have never had impact knee pain since.

[SemperEadem]

I agreed in a semi intoxicated state to run the Sheffield 10k for a young peoples homeless charity which I work and volunteer at. Basically its in 19 days, I run for around 20-30 mins twice a week and would say I am in ok Nick but was just wondering have I left in too late to start training for it?

[Steven]

I agreed in a semi intoxicated state to run the Sheffield 10k for a young peoples homeless charity which I work and volunteer at. Basically its in 19 days, I run for around 20-30 mins twice a week and would say I am in ok Nick but was just wondering have I left in too late to start training for it?

Yes.

[Vacamion]

Yes.

If you are doing 30 mins, even a fairly slow lollop will get you just under 5k of distance.

You just have to double that...

Good luck!

[Bluefoxtim]

Anyone have any idea what's up with me.

I'm 22 and I don't think my knees should be giving up on me already but I've had this achey pain under and around my right knee when I push off of my right foot for a while now. I can't pinpoint it exactly but it's on the front, to the right and kind of around the side. It's been a couple of months at least and it's getting me down now I haven't been able to run or play football properly for a while either and I'm joining a football team soon. My right leg just doesn't feel right, but it's not anything I can easily describe to a doctor, it's just always there and I don't know what to do.

Can an infection cause this? Basically a few months back, playing indoor football on that sanpaper-like surface I got some proper nastly gashes (giggity) on my knees and they went all manky and pussy for a few weeks. I was basically in a collision with a goalkeeper and landed on my knee pretty badly. There's still some nasty scars there but it doesn't seem to hurt at the exact points but I don't know how the human body works. I was able to play afterwards but it'd make sense if that was the point I knackered it.

Anyway, cheers for any help.

Wow - pretty much identical to me...

I'm 22 now. My problems started when I was 20 I think. I'd been running and playing football 4/5 times a week and was upping my mileage fairly quickly. One Sunday I was doing my usual long run and about a mile from home my knee gradually started aching and after a few hundred yards more, I was forced to stop and walk home. I normally played football on Tuesday and by then I thought my knee was okay - played the whole hour in discomfort.

For the next few months I kept playing football and kept running but I was doing much less and it got to the stage where my knee was aching all the time, even walking to the shops started it off. Wasn't a specific pain anywhere, just a constant dull ache and stiffness.

Eventually enough was enough... I went to my doctor and he told me to take ibuprofen, this didn't help. I then went to a sports physio down the road who pulled my leg about and was apparently realigning my hips. That cost me about £50. This didn't help at all.

I joined the gym in an attempt to cross-train and strengthen my leg muscles - didn't help.

A few weeks later I went to another sports physio clinic after doing a bit of research - this one was on London Road and looked a bit more professional. The chap couldn't find much wrong and he suggested that I went and visited a podiatrist. Gave me the number of a bloke in Stoneygate and I went a few days later. The podiatrist clinic was really posh and the bloke had a hundred plaques on his wall and how he had being a lecturer at the london foot hospital. He moulded my feet and charged me £200 for some insoles. Did they help? Did they balls.

I was still running to some degree and did the Great North Run. Afterwards, I got a massage in my charity tent and the bloke was a sports physio and coach. He told me that insoles were a waste of time and said that my knee pain would be from a muscle imbalance.

I stopped running and my knee still hurt day-to-day. I went back to the docs and demanded he did something, so I got a referral to the hospital. I saw yet another physio. He told me something completely different to the others and gave me a set of exercises to work on. Did they help? Did they balls.

I went back to the hospital a few weeks later and saw the consultant. I gave him the exercise sheet that the physio had given me and he laughed and ripped it up and threw it in the bin. He gave me some more completely different advice. Did that help? Did it balls.

Eventually I just stopped running. I stopped playing football and avoided all exercises for weeks. My knee stopped hurting and I decided to go for a light jog, wasn't long before the twinge was back. I was in the middle of a field and just went on my back and felt sorry for myself for about an hour. I then forced myself to take about 3 months off and then I finally managed to get back running without my knee being at the forefront of my mind. I still get the twinges now and again but I know the signs of when to ease off and I make sure I stretch properly and use ice after all exercise.

As well as spending so much time and money on seeing doctors, physios, specialists etc, I spent loads of money on a variety of knee supports and ridiculously expensive joint pills.

The only advice I can give you is to REST. I know how hard that is - I was training for a marathon when the problems first started. So determined to push through and keep going. It really isn't worth it in the long run. I always wondered how people could be so stupid when I heard about them paying £1000's for some fake spiritual healer - but desperation quickly sets in and you would try almost anything for a solution.

[Guest ttfn]

I've signed up for a sprint triathlon in 7 weeks' time (750m swim, 20k bike, 5k run).

Any training tips?

[SOCCERROO FOX]

I had pain under both knees when doing marathons and other races.

I did two things:

i) I went to see a podiatrist who made casts of the shape of my feet and gave me two sets of insoles.

ii) Sounds daft but I stopped 'putting my feet up' whilst lying on the sofa or putting my legs on the coffee table without having support under my knees. When your legs are 'straight' out in front of you and raised whilst seated the weight goes on the knees, or the back of the knee so to speak. I now ensure they are never made subject to that pressure.

I have never had impact knee pain since.

Sounds like what you have is Orthotics

I've had them since i was 13-14, only ever had one more issue when i was about 23 because i needed an upgrade.

[Jordan]

This is ridiculous. I have what seems like the exact same problem in my right knee, and it has been going on for about a month. I tried resting, and when I thought I was feeling better, my knee started hurting again. I've tried icing it and taking aspirin, but it doesn't seem like it is going away.

I think I will see am orthopedist first and get an MRI to check first if there is anything serious, then I'm sure I will go to PT for a bit.

[reynard]

I've signed up for a sprint triathlon in 7 weeks' time (750m swim, 20k bike, 5k run).

Any training tips?

You may find some tips here

http://www.halhigdon.com/training/