Sleep Well, Run Better
Tweak your bedtime habits to sleep like a baby – and wake up raring to go again - by Sarah Ditum
Aside from “Run, Forrest, run!” the most annoying heckle a runner must endure has to be, “Blimey! You’ll sleep well tonight!” Unoriginal, unfunny and not even true, because a tiring run is actually no guarantee of a peaceful night’s sleep, says Dr Guy Meadows of the London Sleep School (thesleepschool.org).
The sleep-disorder specialist and ultra-marathoner has worked extensively with distance runners. “They often end up absolutely physically exhausted, but mentally wide awake,” he explains. Here are some of the most common reasons why you might not be getting the shut-eye you need as a runner – and how to adapt your night-time routine to ensure that you do.
Too Much, Too Late
Insomniac runners often dramatically up their mileage in the hope of wearing themselves out,” says coach and RW contributing editor Nick Anderson (runningwithus.com). But a classic symptom of overtraining is fatigue coupled with an inability to sleep. Plus, the burst of adrenaline and endorphins that comes with running is not what you need close to bedtime. Meadows advise increasing your mileage by no more than 10 per cent a week, and avoid training within two hours of bedtime.
Action plan: Avoid training 2 hours before sleep
If you do choose to go out running in the afternoon, steer clear of caffeinated and sugary energy drinks, both of which are sure to keep you awake later on. A caffeine-free and electrolyte-rich natural alternative such as coconut water is a more sensible choice.
Too Many Lie-Ins
Running might increase your need for sleep – Paula Radcliffe says she gets 11 hours a night – but that doesn’t mean you should start a love affair with the snooze button. Psychologist Dr Chris Idzikowski, director of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre, advises setting a regular bedtime that allows seven and a half hours’ sleep. This prioritises the quality of the first two hours’ sleep, when your body releases the most growth hormone1, which promotes muscle development and is thought to encourage fat-burning.
Action Plan: 7.5 hours recommended daily sleep
Though you should avoid eating for an hour before sleep, you might find it easier to adjust to an earlier bedtime if you dine on turkey, nuts or hummus. These foods are rich in tryptophan, an essential amino acid that has a major role to play in ensuring you get a good night’s kip. Page 5 of 6
Tossing and Turning
Pre-race nerves can catch out even experienced runners, but if you find thoughts of a longed-for PB are keeping you awake, Meadows recommends the ‘mindfulness’ technique: spend a few minutes thinking about the things on your mind, “then bring yourself back to the present by focusing on your immediate surroundings”, he says. “Having acknowledged the things keeping you awake, you can gently let go of struggling with them.”
Action Plan: Warmer hands and feet = better night's sleep
Make your surroundings as conducive to sleep as you can. One factor is temperature: a study2 found that people drifted off more easily when their hands and feet were slightly warmer than the rest of their body. So best dig out those bed socks.
Count Down to 40 Winks
120 mins before bed: Stop running
90 mins before bed: Turn off TV, computer and smartphone
75 mins before bed: Have a warm bath
60 mins before bed: Finish eating
30 mins before bed: Snuggle down and read a book
0 mins: Time to turn out the lights and drift
Top Three Winter Running Secrets to Emerge from the Winter Ready to Race
Categories: Recovery, Technique & Form by Patrick
Winter training isn’t fun or easy. Everyone needs to run in the snow at least once a year, after that the fun and excitement diminish in favour of worry about falling and concern for missed workouts. But the winter is also a great time for a running re-birth, a chance to leave the hectic race schedule behind for some quality training that can really help separate you from the competition when the season heats up again in the Spring. Here are three distinct things to work on that can help you breakthrough this winter.
Find the Hills
The best part about adding hills to your running routine is that you don’t need to run the fast to receive their
full benefits. Snow and similar winter terrain challenges only serve to make even the average hill into something to that will truly challenge your limits and build your fitness.
To be clear, I am not talking about hill repeats or similar speed-related efforts here. Your goal in the winter
should be to run outside as much as you can. Of those runs your two key outdoor runs should involve hills in
some shape or form. You can break them down as:
Hilly Long Run: Easy/Steady pace out as a warm up, then over to the hills where, now that you are warmed up, you can pick up the pace to Moderately Hard. Push the hills and roll down the descents as recovery. Use the uphill section to work on your form and drive; use the down hills to work on your cadence and remaining smooth. Be sure to include some recovery time, as the hills will put additional stress on your body that will require some additional care.
Hilly Tempo Run: A much shorter version than the longer run, and definitely less challenging to plan. You
are looking for a moderate hill here that takes anywhere from 1.5 to 3 minutes to climb. After a warm up,
you’ll do loops of this hill with some additional running on flatter terrain as the actual work portion. The hill
is run at a steady effort; the “work” you do is on the flats. So a single repeat would look like this:
• 2-minute hill climb
• 1- to 2-minute recovery descent
• 4- to 6-minutes of tempo running (approximately 10k pace);
Get Some Core Strength
Running technique and overall durability are constantly “hot” topics in the running world. Everyone want to
run to the best of their ability, and no one wants to get injured (again). But both of these are outcomes, end
states achieved through work in the form of developing core strength.
Core strength exercises, particularly ones done in a functional manner (i.e. _not_ with the ab blaster 9000) not only improve your posture and positioning when running, then actually help you activate and establish a strong connection with the rest of your body. You can tell someone to roll their hips forward all day, but you might as well be speaking a foreign language if they can’t actually activate the right muscles.
This won’t require significant time or a gym membership; typically ten to maybe fifteen minutes is all that’s
required to get in a great workout that will go a long way towards stabilizing your running form and putting
you in the driver’s seat of your running. There are tons of programs available on the web; inside Marathon Nation we have multiple Core and Maintenance workouts designed to keep our members running faster for
longer.
A Need for (Treadmill) Speed
Even if the weather outside is awful, and your next A race isn’t for months, you can’t simply neglect speed
work if your winter goal is to improve your fitness. This is especially true for runners who frequent the marathon or half marathon distances, as the better part of your season is spent running at a generally “endurance” oriented pace. Not changing your program in the winter could result in fitness stagnation, not to mention mental burnout. Besides, you might earn an extra gear that could come in handy at the end of your next big race.
Speed work on the treadmill is the perfect antidote for the winter running blues, as you can dress as if it’s
spring and run at some really fast paces to recruit some new muscles. I suggest you limit your speed sessions to just once per week; you don’t need much more to challenge your body especially if you are following the hill guidance as written above. Here’s a sample session you can do:
• Warm Up for 10 minutes, building from very easy to about marathon pace. Be sure to set the treadmill to 1.5% here.
• Do three repeats of thirty seconds each (3 x 30″) all at 5k pace. To take a break, simply hold onto the handrails and jump your feet to the outside panels. When ready, hold the handles and jump right back in.
• Do 2 to 3 x 1 mile repeats at your current 10k or 5k pace. Rest as long as is needed between the intervals by jogging at a very casual pace.
• Cool Down with a mile of jogging and walking, then take a moment to stretch out your trouble areas.