Is it OK to run twice a day?

Richmond Park is full of lovely old oak trees

Hubby and I ran around the edge of Richmond Park today - a beautiful run, stunning setting, great hilly trails, a bit hot even at 8 am this morning so we  had to stop a couple of times to let the dog have a swim in the ponds to cool down.  Never in my life has a dirty pool of water strewn with the type of stringy pond weed that I've always had a phobia of ever been so appealing.  I envied our dog lolling around, lapping up the cool clear murky brown water.

Anyway, the run itself transpired to be a couple of kilometers shorter than we'd hoped.  I was also a bit behind my weekly quota as I had not run on Saturday run due to a twingy hip that I mysteriously woke up with, and that just as mysteriously wet away overnight.  As I pondered how to make up a few more K, the obvious answer was to get another run in today.  

So far we've not seen any deer and  therefore not
had a 'Fenton' moment. Thank God!!

As I had to visit my mums place and water the plants while she's out of town, I seriously considered running  there and back, which is 3 miles each way, but the 30+ degree heat coupled with my ignorance about the bodies reaction to running twice in one day forced the decision to do some research first.

I Googled the question for a while, and there are a couple of schools of thought about this.

The first is, by running more often, you reap the same fitness benefits you get when you boost the duration and intensity of any one run: reduced body fat, increased VO2 max, and improved muscle tone. You just get those benefits sooner when running more than once a day.  Advocates of running twice a day do stress that one workout needs to be an easy, low intensity session, and you should build up to it slowly.  For example, go out twice a day twice a week, but at first keep the second session to 15-20 minutes long.

The second view is that its a bad idea, as once you come back from a run your body starts to rest and repair any damage. It then has a good 24 hours to recover (including a nights sleep) before you go out for your next run (assuming you go out each day). If you run twice your body will have less time to recover and could cause injury.

I personally believe this is one of those issues where listening to your body becomes the main factor.  For some one who's been running a while, who's fit and uninjured and has the energy, I can't see it being an issue.

 I run almost every day (even if its just a couple of kilometres) and also go to yoga at least twice a week, and the gym twice a week too, so am used to working out twice in a day, so I don't think running twice can hurt me,provided I'm sensible and don't overdo it.

  I waited for the temperature to drop to a balmy 29 degrees, and drive to a kilometre away from my mums place, and have a lovely little run along the towpath to her place and back.  It's upped my quota just enough that I don't feel I've under achieved this week.

I decided to do this extra 2K in my Merrells, and I'm not if it was poor running technique in these or the simple act of running twice in a day, but my shins really complained immediately following the end of the run. After a few minutes rest they're absolutely fine, but it's something I'll have to keep my eye on. I suspect the heat today has wearied me and I've been a bit sloppy.  I'll try this again and will see how I get on.

Don't barefoot run before you can walk

As I mentioned in a previous post, I made the decision to walk around barefoot as much as possible to try and toughen up my soles a bit and allow my feet to adapt and react to new sensations before starting to run barefoot.

Walking barefoot has not been nearly as uncomfortable as I anticipated it might be - with one exception: The Stares!

I suppose it does look somewhat odd, seeing some random bird sans shoes trotting about Staines town centre in her lunch break (I do draw the line at entering any actual shops with naked soles), and my emotions run from mild embarrassment to slight annoyance that society should dictate to me that my feet should be shod outside of socially acceptable shoeless situations, such as the pool, the beach, the garden and flash flooded festivals when wellies aren't an option.  I have even taken to carrying my sandals in my hand in the hope that people are more likely to think I'm saving my tootsies from a blister rather than being either A: mad or B: too poor to afford shoes.

My solutions was making some barefoot sandals, which was surprising simple to do, requiring some elastic and some beads.  Wikepedia defines barefoot sandals as:

Barefoot sandals are something of a misnomer, referring to straps or jewelry such as anklets and toe rings that have no sole; barefoot sandals originated in South Asia and are popularly worn at religious festivities and events primarily for decoration rather than protection

Whilst on closer inspections it is easily apparent that my soles are in a state of undress, from a distance it can appear that I am wearing a soled shoe of some description and therefore I can avoid the dreaded 50 yard stare!

There are dozens of sites out there offering a huge variety of this type of footwear, from crochet examples to bejewelled and dazzling, or you can do as I did and make your own. I used a pattern I found in a book, but it wasn't dissimilar to the instructions here: http://mandycrandell.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/how-to-make-barefoot-sandals.html

As for the sensations of walking barefoot, I'm really rather enjoying it - from loose gravel to sun warmed paving stones to cool dewy grass. Each surface differs enormously, and is a different sensual treat for my tootsies.  I do have the odd sharp bit of gravel make me flinch, but its not really painful.  The feet are hyper-sensitive for a reason: to give you good warning when you do step  on something sharp, or otherwise uncomfortable, so you don't put any more weight down and damage yourself.

Walking barefoot on soft grass is on of the greatest pleasures I've experienced (and my life has not been short on pleasure).  It's a treat for the feet, and also helps centre me and connect me to nature too.

Barefoot running is a pain in the ......calf

At least it has been for me.  Just over a week ago I purchased a pair of minimalist shoes on the recommendation of both my hubby and my personal trainer, and I've been slowly adapting to them by running a short 1-1.5KM circuit daily.  At least that was the plan.

By day 4 my inner calves were so sore and fatigued, I had to give them a days rest.  One days rest turned into two to allow me to do a longer run, but by day 6 I was ready to go again.

Alas, the sore calves were back again with a vengeance.  It felt like the 'flexor digitorum longus' and 'soleous' were hosts to hundreds of  pixies were hooking themselves into by means of red hot claws on their hands and feet, and once soundly attached were proceeding to bite with razor sharp teeth and then suck out all the energy from my lower leg, leaving it stiff and tired.

Now, I fully expected to have to build up muscle that had become lazy, but this felt like I was doing something wrong rather than just needing more practise or greater calf strength.

Reading 'Barefoot Running Step By Step', I've come across a few tips and tricks of barefoot running that translates well into running in general, regardless of what kind of shoes (or lack thereof ) you may be running in.

The key point that stood out for me was that co-author Barefoot Ken Bob, who has been running barefoot for decades, noticed that shod runners don't bend their knees enough.  If you bend your knees whilst running the ball of your foot automatically makes contact with the ground prior to the heel, therefore removing the painful and knee damaging heel strike from the equation.  Keeping your knees bent also automatically relaxes your calf, so when your heel does touch down its fully decompressed and entire leg (hips, knees, ankles, quads and calves) act like a giant spring.

Ken Bob also talks about focusing on lifting your foot up rather than pushing it down for a gentler gait, yet a faster cadence.

Whilst I've not yet had the courage to actually run barefoot, I've been using these techniques for my last few runs, and have seen huge improvements when wearing both my traditional Nike Pegasus running shoe and my minimalist Merrell Barefoot shoe.

For example - running down hill, rather than locking my legs out and braking, I've been bending my knees and letting gravity carry my down.  It's a little scary as without braking you end up flying down hills so quickly, but its just like being a kid and requires virtually no effort at all.  On a steep hill, by the time you get to the bottom your legs are moving so fast it feels like they're about to fall off! The momentum carries you halfway back up the next hill too - fantastic.

My cadence is up - I'm easily achieving a 90+ cadence, whereas before I was was struggling to reach the 80s, and as a result my speed has picked up by about 20 seconds a kilometre - that's quite a jump for a few days work!

And as for the the little energy-vampire pixies that were attaching themselves to my calves by means of red hot claws on hands and feet?  Gone!  I can still feel the muscles in my feet and calves working a bit harder than I was previously accustomed to, but there is no pain.

Another interesting side effect is I'm no longer having any shin pain.  I've always had some shin pain since starting running - most of the time it's barely noticeable, and I think I had just stopped noticing in general, but it's now become apparent by its absence!  Some time ago during some running drills, my trainer James Morris impressed upon me the importance of relaxing your calf and foot whilst running. I understood what he was saying and thought I was achieving it, but it never really clicked.  What I was actually doing was relaxing the calf as the my foot came up, allowing my toe to point, then flexing my foot back so that the ball of the foot would hit the ground first, and tensing the calf to do so.  The shock of a tensed foot and calf 'hitting' the ground caused a whiplash like reaction on the front of my leg, causing tenderness, and on some occasions, pain.

Barefoot Ken Bob and Robbo

Notice the word I used there: 'hitting' the ground. No wonder we injure ourselves due to impact when using words such as 'hit' and 'strike' to describe how our feet land!  Using Ken Bobs method of bent knees the foot is automatically at an angle to allow the ball of the foot to 'touch' the ground gently first, before the heel and toes also make contact.  By bending my knees more something clicked for me: Bent knees also means relaxed calves, and relaxed calves mean less impact, less potential for injury, and more 'springiness' in your step. For me, this resulted in reducing the tenderness in my shins and speeding up my pace.  Maybe it would help you with sore heels, knees or hips?

I'm not qualified or experienced enough to instruct anyone in running technique, so if this is something you want to try I wholeheartedly recommend it - but please be careful and don't just use the snippets of information I'm sharing here as a basis for experimentataion, so make sure you research the technique fully to be sure you understand it otherwise you could injure yourself. You can buy the book or visit Barefoot Ken Bobs website for more information.

Humans were made to run marathons!

Inspired by my recent read 'Born To Run', I wanted to learn more techniques for Barefoot Running, so I entered 'Barefoot Running' into my Kindle store search and was presented with an impressive array of results for what is still really a small niche market.

Scanning the results, one title popped out 'Barefoot Running Step by Step: Barefoot Ken Bob, the Guru of Shoeless Running, Shares His Personal Technique for Running with More Speed, Less Impact, Fewer Injuries and More Fun', co-written by Roy M. Wallack and Barefoot Ken Bob Saxton.

Although its a massive title, that isn't what stood out the most, but the name Barefoot Ken Bob. Barefoot Ken Bob was referred to in 'Born To Run' as the 'Guru' of barefoot running, and seeing as I had found that book so inspirational and education I had to download this book!

Ken Bob & Roy Wallack start the book by putting forward a really good case about what great long distance runners humans are - the best on the planet in fact.  There is quite a lot of evidence suggesting that the modern human species evolved to be the way it is today to be able to, quite literally, run it's prey to death.

Around two million years ago, our ancestors suddenly had access to far more protein which enabled our brains to grow larger and our species to evolve into the modern humans we are today.  As the spear was not invented until 50,000 years ago, and the bow and arrow not until 10,000 years ago, how did our ancestors manage to obtain this amount of protein without tools to hunt?

Undoubtedly there would have been some scavenging, but we were not fierce enough to keep other predators away, nor fast enough to escape them if they decided to take their kill back!

Evolution is all about survival of the fittest and fitting into a niche, so why would humanity evolve to be slower and less strong than the competition if it didn't get something back?

Well, we also evolved the ability to run upright.  An animal that runs on four legs may be faster, but essentially the amount of breaths it takes is limited to its stride - one breath = one stride.  The reason being its stomach and guts slam into its lungs with each leap, essentially emptying the lungs.  Humans can take as many breaths as they want, and multiple steps per breath, which is a massive advantage over our animal kin.

We can also sweat.  Most animals can only cool down by panting, which is really limited.  The ability to sweat makes us a really efficient cooling system.

Our prey may have been faster than us, but only in short bursts before they have to rest.  If you keep driving an Antelope, it will bound out of reach and rest, but if you keep pursuing it and keep it moving, not allowing it to rest for long or recover, it will eventually drop down dead from the heat and exhaustion.  This process takes somewhere between 3-5 hours, which, for healthy and fit people accustomed to running, is roughly how long it takes to run a marathon.

Interesting stuff right? You can read more about this discovery here.

Ken Bob is anti any shoes at all, including minimalist 'barefoot' shoes, and he has lots of evidence to suggest that introducing some totally barefoot running can reduce injury and improve running technique - even if you're not hardcore enough to go totally barefoot all the time as he does (but there must be something in it - he's run something like 65 marathons barefoot, with times most of us could only dream off!).

I do believe there is something in it, and I'm introducing many of the techniques Ken Bob describes into my running schedule, and will also try to introduce some time totally barefoot too.  Hardcore Ken Bob suggests starting on gravel as from there running on anything else will be easier - I'm not convinced that is for me, but I'll give it a go.

But I'm not going to 'run before I can walk' (excuse the pun), so for the next couple of weeks I'm going to walk as many places as I can barefoot.  It should help toughen up my feet a bit, as well as allow me to get used to the sensation of different textures underfoot so I can get used to reacting and 'relaxing' over sharp or uncomfortable objects.

Lets see how I get on.

Born To Run

A couple of years ago I bought my then fiance a book called 'Born To Run' by Christopher McDougal.  He absolutely loved it, and I added it to my 'To Read' list.

The book then started to make the rounds with then fiance's friends, and I promptly forgot about it, until my Personal Trainer, James, told me he was attending an event where he would actually get the chance to meet the author.

James returned from the event full of enthusiasm for Mr McDougals knowledge and techniques, which inspired me to actually finally read the book.  Now, the original copy that I gave my now husband was likely to take another two years before finishing the rounds and coming home to us, so I downloaded a copy to my Kindle.

It's one of the best reads I've had for a long time.  Rather than summarise it myself, I've pulled the below off from Christopher McDougal's website:

Full of incredible characters, amazing athletic achievements, cutting-edge science, and, most of all, pure inspiration, Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the world's greatest distance runners and learn their secrets, and in the process shows us that everything we thought we knew about running is wrong. Isolated by the most savage terrain in North America, the reclusive Tarahumara Indians of Mexico's deadly Copper Canyons are custodians of a lost art. For centuries they have practiced techniques that allow them to run hundreds of miles without rest and chase down anything from a deer to an Olympic marathoner while enjoying every mile of it.

This book was such an eye opener for me.  It really helped me get back in touch with why I fell in love with running in the first place.  It's not about constantly improving my time, or just the work out.  Its for the pure love of being strong and free and alive!  And yes I want to continue getting faster and running for longer, but not at the expense of pleasure!

For my next run I left the iPod at home, and  listened to my own breathing, the birds singing and the foliage rustling in the breeze.  It was still hard work, but infinitely more pleasurable.

If you get the chance, beg, borrow or buy a copy - it's really worth a look if you're interested in running, anthropology or even just human interest stories.

Too many Barefoot choices....!

Whilst minimalist shoes are rife on the internet, there's non too many available in the running shops just yet - at least not in my locality.  My local Teddington SweatShop did carry the Nike Frees, and as I loved my Nike Pegasus shoes (and the brand in general) I decided to pop down the next Saturday and try them on for size. However, on the day I was thwarted by the Olympic bike road race effectively cutting me off from the shop.

Impatient to get started now I had set my mind to it, I decided to order online.  I couldn't decide between brands, and there was so much choice!  Hubby wanted to try the Merrel brand next due to a recommendation, so based purely on this I decided to try them.  Remembering hubby's bruised soles in the Saucony 3mm sole, I went for the Merrell Bare Access range that had zero drop, but with a slightly thicker sole (8mm).  You can read a bit more about the Merrel Barefoot range here: http://www.merrell.com/UK/en/Barefoot_Bareform.

During my research it had become clear that when moving to a minalmist shoe YOU MUST TAKE IT SLOW - having relied on lots of cushioning for years, calves and feet get lazy, and you have to build up strength in your muscles again.

Bearing this in mind I decided to run 1K - 1.5K in them every day for a week, then increase this by 0.5K - 1K per week until I was up to the same distance that I run in my beloved Nike Pegasus shoes, whilst staying in the Nikes for my longer weekend runs (at least until my legs and feet adapted).

The Merrell Womens Barefoot Run Bare Access Arc.

Excitedly I awaited my package, and when they arrived I was delighted in how light they were, how bendy the soles were, and that there was so much room in the toe box for my toes to spread and grip.

I decided to wear these shoes without socks to stay as close as possible to the barefoot principle, and off I go for a gentle 1.4K loop around my road.

My feet felt so light! My cadence automatically went up, and I focussed on landing on my forefoot, which in turn increased my cadence further.  This was easy peasy!

Hang on though - by the 1/2 kilometre mark my calves were burning and extremely tired, and in all honesty this took much of the pleasure away from what should have been a very gentle run in an extremely beautiful setting (I'm lucky enough to live on a road that is more trees and fields than houses and cars).  It was tough, but I finished my planned loop and went the rest of the day with aching, sore calves.

Its OK though - I expected this. I read in several places that you have to build up calf and foot muscled that have effectively atrophied having been overcompensated for in modern shoes.  It will just take some time.

A new way to run without injuring myself

I needed to find a new way to run without injuring myself.

A few months previously I had started working with a personal trainer, James Morris, in order to get wedding dress ready (which I succeeded magnificently at at, thanks to his training).

At this point in time, James and I had not worked at running technique, but he was a keen advocate of zero drop shoes. He had always maintained that heel striking when running was a bad move, and had been trying to coach me away from this, with limited success.

There's a movement at the moment transitioning away from cushioned heels in sports shoes due to the belief that, in the same way that a gymnast searching for stability automatically lands harder on a thicker, softer mat, we actually create more impact on our heels and up through our legs with a thicker, padded heel in our shoes. The heels of these shoes are also raised above the ball of the foot, forcing the foot into an unnatural
angle, creating a weakness in the calf and ankle, and as if this were not enough, arch supports prevent the decompression of the arch of the foot.  We all know that an arch is one of the strongest load bearing shapes there is, and the arch of our foot is a finely tuned structure to bear the load of our bodies and assist in 'springing' away from the floor.  The greater the load applied to an arch the stronger it becomes. Any engineer can tell you that if you then push up a support under the arch it looses its load bearing capacity.

So why do we do this to our feet?

Marketing.  Plain and simple.

I'm not going to go into the story of the running shoe right now, but will throw a statistic at you.  Anywhere from 65 to 80 per cent of all runners suffer an injury EVERY YEAR.

That's just a huge amount of people hurting themselves doing something we were designed to do.  But interestingly, this statistic has only become such a large percentage since Nike introduced the modern running shoe in the 70s.  Prior to this, runners wore thin rubber soled shoes, and the vast majority of common running injuries simply did not happen.

My injury-prone husband moved away from standard modern running shoes to zero-drop minimalist shoes in November 2011. Whilst I disliked the Saucony design, thinking they looked cheap and nasty, there was no mistaking that hubby had progressed from being in a situation where for months he had been unable to run a mile without his back going out or some other injury occurring, to matching my weekly distance and almost matching my speed.  His only concession to a pain free run was occasionally landing on a stone which the 3mm sole failed to protect him from, and he'd get a bit of a bruise.

Now my honeymoon was over, and I was less worried about being so toned, James and I started looking at my footfall and cadence, and with the help of some drills and his advice I really worked hard to make the transition to more of a fore-foot landing, which is supposedly far more natural, and how we run when barefoot.

There must have been something in it, as despite having not run at all for over a month before squeezing in two 5K training runs, I then entered my second Race for Life at the beginning of July, and I smashed my personal best, coming in with a time of 26 minutes and 36 seconds, and in the top 25 runners.

OK - I'm a convert.  Now I need to try out some of these minimalist shoes.