Trudi Thomson — a GB international at 40.
Note the gloves for cold-weather racing
CHAPTER FOUR
‘I’m not a jogger!
I paid £100 for this tracksuit.’
SHARMAN PATERSON
Marlborough Running Club
If you are starting from scratch, your first few days of exercise will be walking, which can be done in everyday clothes. You will quickly find out that comfort is what matters most. Clothes should not be so tight as to chafe or restrict your movement, nor should they be so loose that they flap about. Shoes need to have rubber soles and be big enough for your foot to stretch out fully. They should be flat-heeled, with a bit of cushioning in the heel to absorb the shock of landing.
Before you reach the end of Stage One, though, you will need to buy your-self some proper running shoes. It is best to go to a specialist sports-shoe shop and try out the different makes. Some makes tend to be narrower, some wider, so you need to find the brand whose last matches your kind of feet. The heavier you are, the more cushioning you will need, but if you have too much cushioning your feet are further off the ground, which leads to instability.
Our advice is to go to a specialist shop, try on lots of brands and pick the one which feels right for you, regardless of the price – the most expensive is not necessarily the best. Remember that if you are buying a US size it will be one size larger than you take in British sizes. Although you can often get cheap shoes through mail order, we don’t recommend it, unless you are familiar with the brand. Good fit is vital in running shoes, so you should try them on and jog up and down before buying. To start with, the most important thing for you will be comfort and protection, which means you should choose a fairly heavy well-padded shoe. As you become better adapted to regular running you may prefer to run in something lighter, because the lighter the shoe, the easier it is to run. For Bruce, the most enjoyable running is in bare feet, either on the beach down in Devon or on well-kept playing fields. Running in bare feet enables you to use all the muscles in the foot in the way they were designed to work, so it makes your feet stronger, and it is faster – but there are drawbacks, which we needn’t go into.
Trudi Thomson — a GB international at 40.
Note the gloves for cold-weather racing
If you get into serious racing on the road, you should buy a light and flexible racing shoe – the nearest thing to bare feet. The difference between wearing heavy trainers and light racing shoes can be as much as ten seconds per mile – or a minute in a 10k race. The drawback is that the lighter the shoe, the less protection it gives and you run the risk of getting sore legs, so many people opt for a ‘racer-trainer’ which gives you some protection. The lightest racing shoe will be from about 6oz/170g to 10oz/280g, depending on the size of your foot; the trainer/racers will be in the range of 11–13oz/310–360g and the heavy training shoes will weigh as much as 16oz/450g. If you are running on the track, you can do this perfectly well in the racing flats you use on the road, but if you are going to run in sprints or middle-distance races you will probably need spikes. On normal synthetic tracks you must use spikes which are 5–6 mm long, but if you run on an old-fashioned grass or cinder track you will need 9 or 12 mm spikes. The advantage of the inter-changeable spikes is that you can use them in the winter for cross-country running as well – here again the 9–12 mm length is suitable for most courses.
In recent years there has been an increase in multi-terrain races. These often start and finish with a mile or two of road before going off onto grassland or forest trails. You cannot use spikes because there is too much road, but if you use racing flats you may well slip about on muddy tracks. The answer is to buy rubber-studded shoes, but if you are buying them to race in they should not be too heavy. The best ones are those advertised for orienteering or fell racing, because they are usually lightweight and waterproof.
This is worth a paragraph to itself, because it is crazy to spend months training for the event and then ruin it through having the wrong shoes. Never wear new shoes for a marathon. Your racing shoes should be worn in but not worn out. If you feel you need new shoes, buy them a month before the race, wear them a few times in normal training and for your last two long runs. This will give you the chance to get the shoe/sock balance right. Ideally, marathon shoes should be half a size larger than the shoe you use for normal training, because your feet swell during a long race. If you buy a tight-fitting pair because they make your feet look smaller you will finish up – if you finish at all – with black toe-nails and blisters. You should wear a thick pair of socks with them in the short runs and a thin pair of socks for the marathon. To decrease the risk of getting blisters it is a good idea to put plenty of talcum powder inside the socks and inside the shoes before you race in them.
It is possible to spend hundreds of pounds on expensive running gear. It won’t make you run any faster. On the other hand, it is important to look good and feel good when running. If you go on running in the same shorts and t-shirt day after day without washing them you will find that it is unpopular as well as unhygienic. We recommend having four sets of everything, for the serious runner.
The things you will need are:
Shorts: Can be as brief as modesty and climate permit, but many people find that the long cycling shorts, with Lycra in them, are very useful, because they prevent chafing.
T-shirts: Not too tight. The right t-shirt can have tremendous status value.
Singlets: Essential for hot weather running. Tight singlets are alright for short runs but uncomfortable in the long run.
Jogging bra: Where appropriate. Can save a lot of unnecessary motion.
Long-sleeved t-shirts: Very useful for cold weather running, because they keep the forearms warm.
Tights: Strongly advised for both men and women when running in cold weather. The colder your muscles, the more likely you are to pull a muscle.
Anoraks: otherwise called rain-tops, shells or wind-cheaters, should be shower-proof, with a hood.
Caps, hats, headbands and gloves: These small items can make a huge difference to your comfort when running, because so much heat is lost from the head and the hands. The older you get, the more you need to keep your head warm. On the other hand there are times when you will need a headband to keep the sweat out of your eyes, or a peaked cap to protect you from glare. When running a cold-weather marathon it is well worth starting with a big t-shirt and an old woolly hat on top of everything. After a few miles, when you have generated enough heat, you can throw them away. (And, of course, if you need to collect some old t-shirts and woolly hats, just go to the start of the London Marathon on a cold day.)
Reflective clothing: When running at night, few runners realise that although they can see the car, the car probably cannot see them until the last minute. Most running shoes have reflective heel tabs, but it is also essential to have reflective tape on the back of your clothing. The best things to get are bibs made of brightly coloured and reflective mesh, which make you visible both after dark and in dim light.
Dustbin liners: In a really big race you may be hanging around for forty minutes at the start, having already handed in your tracksuit. A large waterproof plastic bag may not be the smartest thing to wear but if the weather is cold and wet it can save you a lot of discomfort.
Heart Monitor: This is a useful, though not essential device, because it enables you to learn about yourself. As long as you use a ‘chest strap’rather than a ‘fingertip’ model, even the cheapest monitor will enable you to find out about your resting heart rate, your ‘comfortable’, your ‘threshold’ and your maximum heart rate. By training at the right heart rate you can ensure that your running is doing you good and not doing you harm. The way to use them is described in the next chapter.
When running, you get much hotter than you expect, and after running you get much colder than you expect. The experienced runner therefore goes for multiple layers of clothing rather than single thick garments.
For a race in average English conditions we would advise shorts, a singlet, in case it is warm, a t-shirt, which can be worn with or instead of the singlet if it is cold, a rain-top to protect you when warming-up and a fleecy sweater to put on after the race, as well as cap, gloves and tights to warm up in and tracksuit bottoms to keep you warm afterwards.
First aid kit: When going away to a big race or a training camp, we usually take the following:
scissors, plasters, safety pins, roll of adhesive tape, antiseptic cream, foot powder, fungicidal cream, aspirin, Ibuprofen (tablets and ointment), diarrhoea tablets, indigestion tablets, massage oil, and a couple of bandages for strapping ankles. For hot-weather events we also take sun block, insect repellent and sting relief ointment.
Radios and Walkmen: We don’t recommend these, for two reasons. The first is that they make you deaf to traffic and therefore much more liable to have an accident, and the other is that you will run more effectively if you ‘switch on’ to what you are doing, rather than switiching off. However, they are a great help to those who find long runs boring.
Bum-bag: Highly useful for carrying a spare sweater or shell in uncer-tain weather.
Armband: The small armband with a Velcro strap and a pocket, as worn by skiers, is really useful, because you can carry your car keys, phone money, toilet paper etc., without worries.
Wristbands: Only for the really pretentious.
Water-bottle: Essential for the serious long-distance runner, because you can get dehydrated very easily. It is useful to have a small one which you can carry when running solo and a large one which you can get someone else to carry.
PAT GALLAGHER
Age: 60
Occupation: administrator
When you see Pat Gallagher run, you worry about her, because she pushes herself so hard. ‘Can this be wise?’, one thinks, ‘surely she can’t keep on doing this.’
Pat started competing as a 13-year-old, and at 21 she ran for Wales in the World cross-country championships and then retired. Ten years later, following the death of her husband, Westbury Harriers persuaded her to return, and at 38 she was picked for Wales again, in the 800m. Her outstanding achievements, though, have all been as a veteran. She won her first of many World titles at the age of forty and she holds British veteran records for 800m and 1500m. In 2001 she raced little, because of injury, but still won both the 1500m and the 3000m in the European indoor cham-pionships, setting a W55 world record in the latter event. Like Nigel Gates, she has shown that hard training helps you to hold the years at bay. Her best 1500m time, set at the the age of 38, is 4:32 but she was able to record 4:49 for the distance as an over-fifty – a decline of less than 1 second per kilometre per year.
‘I like the discipline of training –although I sometimes hate it – but it is such a good feeling when the hard work produces results.
‘It is hard to fit in training with a full time job. I get up at 6 am – it’s a wonderful time to train; with no one around you can plod along at your own pace. In the evening I train with the group and also help coach the youngsters. I do one speed session a week and one speed endurance session on the grass.
‘I don’t think my approach has changed, but I find myself more prone to injuries and health problems as I get older. I now try to be more aware of how my body feels. I hoped that this was going to be my year, turning 55, but I developed a Deep Vein Thrombosis. I am now training again – Never Give Up!’