Amazing Running Tips For Beginners To Pros
Did you know that the way you tie your shoes can have an effect on your feet while running? Returning guest and running expert, Dr. Juliet McGrattan, shares her best tips for running for beginners to pros including the best way to stretch, how to improve your running posture for optimal performance and so much more.
Do not miss this episode’s treasure mine of information on staying fit to run injury-free!
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:
- The best stretching technique
- Running posture for optimal performance
- Should we run when we’re sick?
- How to improve pelvic floor dysfunction/stress incontinence
- The recommended diet for runners
- How to calculate your body’s water requirement
- Actionable steps to manage runner’s trots
- What can you do to keep your feet from blistering
- How to relieve a side stitch
RESOURCES/LINKS MENTIONED:
- Run Well: Essential Health Questions And Answers For Runners. | Paperback: https://bit.ly/3L4WRtg
- 261 Fearless: https://www.261fearless.org/
- Stress incontinence exercises: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/14611-kegel-exercises
ABOUT DR. JULIET MCGRATTAN
Juliet worked as an NHS GP for 16 years before deciding to focus on using her medical expertise to help people get and stay active. She has a deep love and respect for the transformative power of running after 13 years of running and multiple marathons. Her first book, Sorted: The Active Woman’s Guide to Health, was named the British Medical Association’s Popular Medicine Book of the Year.
She is an international speaker, podcaster, Master Coach, and Women’s Health Lead for the 261 Fearless global women’s running network. She is the Founder and Director of 261 Fearless Club UK, a Community Interest Company, dedicated to female empowerment through running.
CONNECT WITH DR. JULIET MCGRATTAN
- Website: Dr. Juliet McGrattan: https://drjulietmcgrattan.com/
Transcript
Hello. And welcome back to another episode of the imperfectly empowered podcast. I am your host on a former today. We have part two part two with Dr. Juliet , who is a health and wellness expert for runners Juliet. Mccartin spent 16 years working as a general practitioner for the national health service in great Britain.
And she now uses her medical knowledge and love of running to help and inspire others to lead healthy, active lives. We’re going to dive into part two here with Dr. Juliet. welcome.
Hello? Hello. How are you? Good. How are you? Yeah, not too bad. Thank you. I’m just checking my, because I’ve got no good. I think we’re all good. Yep. What’s the temperature like for you guys right now? Well, it’s a spring day and it’s quite sunny. So I think it’s not that warm outside. Maybe about, I didn’t send a great about 16, 17 central.
And my house is pretty close. I’ve got a black kid. I completely understand that this is actually the worst time of year, I think, because it’s not cold enough to put the heat on, but it’s not warm enough to be warm. Yeah. There’s only me in the house and the whole house, so I don’t really feel like I can put the, yeah, just, just get my blanket, my jacket.
I completely understand that. Well, welcome back to the podcast. Yeah. For those of you watching and listening, um, we recorded, oh, it was a little while ago now. We talked so much about the research behind benefits of running. We dove into your medical expertise as a general practitioner for so many years, how you got into what you’re doing now.
And then by the end of it, we were like, okay, wait a second. We could do a whole nother interview on just diving in more specifically to running tips. So if you have not listened to part one, You definitely want to check that out. That really sets the platform for what we’re going to talk about today, which is really diving into running expertise and tips for anyone who is getting started.
Don’t be intimidated. We’re going to talk about really practical things, even if you’ve never, ever been a runner and you hate running, maybe you’ll want to give it a shot by the time that we’re done. Um, or if you’re a pro you’ve been running for years, maybe you even ran competitively. I ran competitively for eight years and I learned stuff from her book.
A lot of which we’re going to unpack. Um, I shouldn’t even say a lot, a tiny bit a tie. There is so much in this book. This is, uh, lovingly referred to as the health Bible for runners, highly, highly recommended. Um, So I have a list, Juliet of questions for you. They’re in no particular order, I even have some of the page numbers marked in here.
Cause it was stuff that, that stood out to me. So I will ask questions that stood out to me, but then feel free at any point to chime in, you know, maybe some of the most frequently let’s start with that. Actually. What are some of the most frequently asked questions that you receive from runners from a health and wellness standpoint?
Why don’t we just knock off some of the most frequently asked because my listeners probably have them as well. Yeah, great. Well, I think the net is really wide. I just threw a very wide net at you. No, no, it’s good. I think probably the most common one and not necessarily just from runners, but from people who care about people who run is we’re running, we’re running damage monies.
I think it’s one of the biggest areas of concern. Sometimes a bit of a myth as well. And I really want to get the message out there, but runners don’t generally need to worry about their knees. I mean, I can totally understand why people worry and I think a lot of it comes from the. The concern about osteoarthritis and osteoarthritis is often known as the wear and tear off writers.
If they, you know, doctors will say, don’t worry, it’s just a bit of wear and tear. And I think that actually makes you feel like you’ve worn out your knees. Therefore, if you run more, you’re going to wear out your knees and cause damage. So I think it’s really important that we try and bust this myth, really because for the average person who runs recreationally, you know, three, four times a week, even.
Running is not going to damage, then it’s not going to cause them to have osteoarthritis. In fact, being physically active will protect you against arthritis. Osteoarthritis. I’m talking about here and there are some situations. Yes, but it could be harmful. So potentially if you’re an elite level and you’re covering very long distances regularly, then potentially your, the amount of where you’re putting on your knees, the knee joint itself might not be able to repair it and keep up.
Also, if you haven’t a previous injury in the knee. So if you’ve had a fracture or damage to the bones, then that can put you a more risk of osteoarthritis. But if you are a general recreational runner, then we don’t have good evidence to say you are going to have osteoarthritis worse than somebody else.
The biggest factor is your genetics that that really does. Yeah. What your car cartilage is like and how quickly your knees are going to wear out. Not necessarily the running itself. So for Bret creational runners, there are things we can do to help protect our knees. That’s maybe another question, but please don’t not run because you’re worried about wearing out your knees.
Yeah, I that’s. I love that. And I think that transitions beautifully into that question. How then can we protect our knees? Talk a little bit about the importance of cross training as a runner or strength training. If you will, uh, a question maybe to phrase it would be, should I still be lifting weights?
Do I need to be doing strength training? If I’m a runner, I have my own thoughts to that, but you being the expert here, what advice would you give to somebody? Well, if you think about the knee joint, you’ve got the bones. Supporting those bones around those bones. You’ve got muscles now, muscles, if they’re strong, they will take a lot of the impact when your foot hits the ground.
There are shock absorbing pads, cartilage within your knee. But actually if the muscles around the knee are strong, then they would absorb a lot of the impact. So one of the things you can, we can do, and absolutely, I agree with you is some strength and conditioning to strengthen the muscles around the knee joint, the stronger they are, the more impact they will take from there, from the impact when your foot hits the ground.
So I think strength and conditioning for runners, it’s really important. We’re all really bad at it. Run. It’s just want to run, but don’t want to go. That’s exactly right. Runners just want to run, but here her training is important. If something that I have to really be, I dunno, I guilty of not doing it at times and I have to, yeah.
Nick myself do it. Um, I’m not perfect by any stretch, but I know that it helps the other thing, which is really important for protecting you. It’s rest and recovery because it’s not actually, when you’re running that you’ll get fitted. It’s when you’re resting afterwards, when you’re running, actually there is a little bit of trauma and damage that goes on in the body.
A little muscle fibers are torn, and it’s when you’re resting that the body is strengthened and repairs itself. Now bones like they like stress. That’s what makes them stronger. I guess it’s the same for all of us. We go through a period of mental stress. Maybe we come out the other side of it stronger, but bones need that time to repair and strengthen themselves.
So if you’re running accessibly, you’re not having rest days. You’re, you’re doing really, you know, big mileage without building in some recovery. And at the beginning, when you first start running, you need quite a lot. So I wouldn’t go from zero to running every day. You know, we’d have at least two or three rest days at the beginning.
When you first start, that will give your bones, muscles, joints, time to repair themselves and help to keep. Let’s get your joints healthy. And this is going to lead into another question. I’m using all these knee examples to lead into other questions. Talk to us a little bit about stretching because we know the importance of stretching, and I would also argue stretching will help protect your knees if you’re doing the right stretches, especially the bands, supporting your knees and muscles.
But there is a common question out there. Do we stretch before we run during our run, after a run? Just talk to us a little bit about stretching. Yeah. Stretching can be quite controversial. And I think it does. Yeah. Who would have thought, who would have thought I have a hair on my mouth, by the way, in case anyone’s wondering what I’m doing, who would have thought stretching would be controversial?
Yeah. I, I guess with my medical expertise, my medical sort of hassle my use of the doctor, I always try to make sure that what I’m saying has got some evidence behind it. And sometimes there is evidence or there’s evidence, but it’s maybe not very good. And I think when it comes to actually stretching, whether it protects.
Um, improves the knee. I think that evidence probably isn’t there, but when it comes to actually how you stretch and why you should stretch again, it can be a little bit wooly, but really the thinking at the moment is those static stretches where you stand still and stretch your hamstrings or your quads, et cetera.
It shouldn’t really be done on a cold muscle before you run. You’re better off before you run doing a dynamic stretching. So a dynamic stretch is a stretch, which takes a joint and a muscle through a sort of range of movement. So we’re talking about things like leg swings to get your hips, woken, hip openers, squats, lunges, those kinds of moving, moving stretches, and then save those static stretches for after you run.
And there’s some studies that say actually it’s best not to do it immediately after running. It’s best to wait a little while. Maybe have a, cool-down have a shower above and then do your stretching. I’d love to say that. That’s what I do, but I know if I don’t stretch straight away, I’m not going to do it.
If I try and do it before I get back in the house. So I don’t stop getting involved in things. So yeah. Dynamic strategies before and static stretches afterwards is the current thing. So just to give a real life example, I, for years and years have been doing, uh, there’s a certain spot in my run that I stop.
It’s approximately 10 minutes into my run. And then, um, I do leg swings. So what you’re describing is probably hip openers might sort of be another, um, example of what I do, but I will do a certain number to the side and then I’ll do it front and back and then I’ll switch to the other leg. Um, and then I do.
A little bit of arms, but mostly I will also do some iliotibial band stretching. So for those of you wondering, that’s the big band that runs from your hip to your knee on the lateral aspect of your leg? I had a tear in that when I was a competitive runner. So I’m very, very careful to keep that loose or else it’s the first thing that tightens up when I’m running.
But it’s exactly what you’re talking about. It’s dynamic stretching. And I have to say getting into that habit, I have never experienced less injuries running. So I do think, like you said, we don’t have enough research as is true of many things, but from an experience standpoint, dynamic stretching into your run.
There’s the other problem runners. We don’t like to stop once we get started, we just want to finish. But if you want to keep running well into your, you know, 60 seventies, eighties, just force yourself to stop, do some dynamic stretching. I do think, I think if we took the time to do research, we would see it probably is presented.
More injury. So what, where you described that was really good. Cause you said you, you, you run for say five or 10 minutes, so that’s, you know, warming up, getting, getting everything, getting your muscles and everything. Anybody’s sort of warmed up and then doing the dynamic stretching is perfect. And there’s also good evidence.
If you actually use a muscle, then the next time you use it, it works more powerfully. So if you are, for example, you really want to activate your glutes when you run. And we very often, don’t our glimpse often very inactive and lazy. If you, if part of that dynamic strategies do some glute work and some squats, then when you run those muscles in your, and your glutes are going to be more active and will work better for you as well.
That’s a great point. I love that. Um, so again, with dynamic stretching, just be intentional about thinking through what muscles we’re making. You work a little bit, but if you want to get the most out of it, think about the muscles that you are. Stretching slash working squats, et cetera, and really try to engage those that mind to muscle connection.
Let’s talk about posture tips for runners. You had so many great comments in your book about pasture for runners. It is for those of us that have run a lot. Those of us, that competitively run too. It is so you can’t help, but notice somebody’s posture when they run, you’re driving along and you see a runner and there are times I don’t know about you.
There are times the inside of me kind of goes, ha like, oh, I just want to like straighten them up or change their arms or bring their elbows into their sides. There are ways to make running so much easier for yourself based on your posture. Talk to us a little bit about posture tips. Yeah, sure. One thing, one of the reasons this is really important, and this goes back to thinking about the knees is that our joints were designed to work in a certain direction.
And if we have unusual biomechanics, if our body works in a slightly different way than often the joint isn’t quite at the angle that it should be, and that can happen particularly with knees as well. So if we’re carrying an injury or we’re carrying just a muscle imbalance from the way we, we spend our day sitting a lot of the time, then we can potentially put our joints at risk.
So good posture, again comes back to sort of joint health as well, but I’m like you, I see someone running and I stopped to not stop myself from winding down the window and just giving them a little shout. And the reason is because not just that it’s protecting our. But it makes running easier because you can run it efficiently.
You know, running is hard enough as it is. And a thing we can do there is better. So correcting your posture is a really simple thing that you can do, and you can get very caught up with all sorts of technicalities. But one of the easiest things that you can do, which we teach at 2 61, fearless, which is the woman’s global network that I’m part of is we call it running as a proud woman, but you can run as a proud.
Well, literally you put your shoulders up to your ears and then you put your shoulders back and down and you find you’re proud. Your chest is proud. Your chin is up. Your shoulders are back and down and immediately makes you stand up tall and everything underneath you kind of falls into place. So you end up with your pelvis right underneath you, rather than, um, with your bottom sort of sticking out.
So literally being a problem and shoulders back up and down and, um, keeping your head upright. And that’s one simple theme of lifting up and keeping your shoulders down. We’ll immediately. But everything into line. It’s hard not to describe that without looking silly and doing it. Yeah, I did it too. I’m pretty sure.
I just sat up a little straighter. I can tell my head’s closer to the top of my screen. Yeah. So that’s what you really got that lovely, upright, upright posture. And that, as I say, well, your hips over your knees and that you want that everything to be in the right position to help with your running efficiency, but also to protect your joints as well.
And the other thing I mentioned in the book as well is that you’ve got that lovely, upright posture, but you want to go forward when you’re running, we spend a lot of energy going up and down. We really want to move forward. So when we’re in that nice upright posture, if we can just lean forward a little bit from the hip, from the ankles, lean from the ankles, rather than leading from your waist, then that will sort of move you, propel you in a nice, upright, but forward direction.
And I think those are probably the biggest, the biggest. That’s perfect. And for anyone interested in taking it to the next level, and when I ran competitively, one of the things that we were told all of the time is, um, Dr. Juliet mentioned that we waste a lot of time, not going forward. We go up and down.
The other thing a lot of people do is they go side to side. And one of the easiest ways to keep yourself propelled forward is to pull your elbows into your side. So if you look at Olympic runners, um, when we get tired, we start to get loose here in our torso, in our elbow, sort of flail one of the easiest ways to streamline your energy is to bring your I’m doing the same thing.
I can’t like not give an example, but you want your elbows to be closer to your side, to keep an inline form so that you keep that movement going forward instead of side to side. And then. We were always taught that your hands, you can carry a lot of tension in your hands if you keep them too stiff. So from what I was taught at least was that you want your hands to be soft enough to carry an egg, but tight enough to carry an egg.
So you want it to be soft, but you also want to be able to hold that egg. So it should almost be this balance between not like this, but also not flailing. Um, anyway. Yeah, no, absolutely. I totally agree with, with, with all of that. And, and the, the, the thing is, you said, it’s, it’s not using your energy to go in the direction that you don’t want to go sideways, but with your hands also.
And I, I discovered when I looked at pictures that I was doing this, especially in a race, we tend to squeeze a fist. Then all you’re doing is using your energy to squeeze your hands together. Whereas if you think about swimming, you wouldn’t swim with your fist, squeeze together. You would have a nice sort of era.
Um, hydrodynamic, whatever the equivalent is in water angle to your hands. So it can slice through the water the same way it can slice through the air. So you’re making things more efficient for yourself, and then come back to the strength and conditioning. Having a strong core is so important because to maintain that upright posture, to maintain keeping your arms close into your side, you really need a nice, strong core.
So again comes back to strength and conditioning. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and the key to his strength and conditioning from my experience, and you touched on so many important things, is that even just when you look at the physiology of our joints, like Dr. Juliet mentioned, the reality is running is fairly in a sense, one dimensional.
I mean, if you only run your joints are really only being conditioned to move in a pretty simple one dimensional kind of a way it’s not true, but my point being. Um, you know, the ability to add strength, training to your regimen or other cross conditioning type of activities is that you are forcing the, um, you know, the micro movements and your joints to be able to adapt to other movements, whether it be side to side, like you might see somebody cut on a basketball court or just movements that you otherwise wouldn’t be doing running.
And that gives you a much more well-rounded, um, strength and muscle exercise, ultimately. So you don’t become overloaded in one direction. Yeah. You asked about that cross training. I don’t think I actually answered your question. I got carried away with something else. Oh no, no. It was great variety and mixture and mixing it up.
Good in generally in life. Isn’t it. You mix it. Have a good variety of diversity in your diet. Um, and. Yeah. So we talked a little about stretching. I, we mentioned, um, we mentioned lifting weights here. Strength training, talk a little bit. If you feel sick, should you run, you mentioned that in your book. I thought that was a good, a good question again.
There’s an interesting, I don’t know about your experience, but some of the research that I’ve read about whether or not you should exercise while you’re sick is interesting counterintuitive maybe. Yeah. And that is a question that commonly get asked. Should I, should I run one a meal? And I think the answer is.
It depends, but generally no running is a stress. And when you’re unwell with something, your body is already stressed. It’s trying to activate the immune system to fight off the illness that you’ve got. And if you then on top add the stress of vigorous exercise, cause running is a vigorous exercise. It can be, it can be too much.
And particularly things like if you have a high temperature, um, when that goes, that when it happens, your heart rate is often raised as well. And then if you raise it further by adding the exertion of running onto it, it’s not really going to do any favors. It may not necessarily be harmful. Could potentially put you into irregular or unusual heart rhythms, but.
It’s certainly not going to be good for you. Um, it’s I think when you’re following the training plan or you’ve got a goal and you’ve got a commitment, you just don’t want to miss out on a run and you want to just keep going and go. But sometimes it’s actually better to say, you know what, let’s just have a day off or a couple of days off or a week off.
And in the bigger picture of things, that’s not going to set you back and you’re not going to lose your fitness sort of in that time. And you may actually get better more quickly than if you’re doing too much. I mean, don’t get me wrong. Exercise is really important for good health and it’s really good for preventing disease and keeping our immune system healthy.
But sometimes if we’ve actually got an active infection, particularly something that’s below the chest, so chesty, cough, um, upset, stomach, everything with a fever, and it makes you feel dizzy or, um, puts your heart rate up. It’s better to, to just have a little bit of a rest. I like that you clarified, especially.
If there’s a fever or not. I think that’s a really good clarification because that is, like you said, it’s engaging, uh, your immune system in a slightly different manner from some of the research that I’ve read the common cold, there’s been no evidence, and this is different than what Dr. Juliet said, which is why I’m pointing this out.
I think that was a really important clarification. Um, generally for a common cold, some of the research that I’ve seen, interestingly shows no benefit to not exercising, meaning you don’t necessarily recover faster. Again, common, cold being very different than if you’re running a fever or if you have a, you know, maybe a viral pneumonia or something with that more chesty.
Um, but I also like to throw out, I have clients that ask me this. What is probably more important than resting even from exercise is that you are sleeping more sleep is one of the most holistic healers that we can possibly have. It’s the reset button. So I would argue if you are trying to figure out how you should rest, when you’re sick, then you need to focus on sleep.
Sleep is very, very important. So if you’re trying to figure out which one to do sleep, I would, I would, I would probably about totally where we sleep at. You have a sort of restorative process, just something about COVID, um, exercises, please. Because again, we don’t have a huge amount of evidence because it’s all evolving, but coming out really is how important there is to get well before you exercise, after COVID not to go back quickly, then the latest guidance that we’ve had here in the UK was published in the British medical journal or the British journal of sports medicine, one of the two anyway, and they created some guidelines, which really said you want to have at least seven days with no symptoms at all before you even think about it.
And then they’ve got a, kind of a, a return to exercise over five weeks, very slow, very step-by-step taking things really, really easy because there’s potentially a risk of. Increased risk of developing lung COVID. That will be around that moment’s potential, but probably an increased risk of myocarditis inflammation of the heart with too much too soon.
And certainly if you’re somebody who might have long COVID, then you need to be getting really clear expert advice on how to pretend to exercise just for the average person. And interestingly, it didn’t seem to matter how severely you had it, the fact that you’d had it gave you a certain amount of risk.
So I’ve really taken this to heart, had a bout of COVID and I’m going back really, really slowly because I don’t want to get, yeah. Yeah. Thank you for pointing that out. And we won’t get into the physiology of it, but COVID has been unusual for many, many reasons, but it is not the same as the common cold, just to clarify, COVID has a different pathophysiology, which is partly why it is probably contributing to what Dr.
Juliet is talking about here. So just understand that COVID. It is a virus like the common cold, but it is not the common cold. So just take that to heart. Thank you for sharing that. Um, maybe one of the most common things that I hear from women about running, let’s talk about stress incontinence. So for those of you that I’ve no idea what I just said.
Stress incontinence basically is IP. When I run, I pee myself. When I run, um, talk to us a little bit about what we can do about it. I thought it was interesting in your book, you said approximately one third of women report this symptom and about 60% of women, I think you noted can improve with the right exercises.
So talk to us a little bit. What, what can women do? And men, men can also experience this, but what kind of exercises are important? Yeah. And thank you for bringing it up because this is really, it’s still a very taboo topic. People feel uncomfortable or embarrassed, and don’t like to talk about it, but it can affect one in three women is a massive barrier to any type of exercise, not just running but running, particularly because it’s high impact and women find that when their foot hits the ground, they involuntary lose a little bit of urine, can be a dribble, can sometimes be like a whole bladder full.
And the reason it’s happening is because there’s, there’s a, there’s something called the pelvic floor, which is the sheet of muscles, which runs from the pubic bone at the front round, the sitting bone at the back, and it supports the pelvic organs. So the bladder sits on top of that as does your womb and the bowel as well.
And if there’s any weakness of the pelvic floor or in the sphincter, which closes off the blood. Then in voluntarily when there’s extra pressure put on it, when there’s extra pressure from the, perhaps the, the, the bottom of your foot on the ground, then that poet, it just can’t quite keep that blood and neck closed and the urine leaks out.
So one of the main treatments is actually to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles, and I’m sure people are probably familiar with the term key goals. We tend to just call them pelvic floor exercises, but I know in the states they’re optical key goals where you actually learn to squeeze and strengthen the pelvic floor through working it.
Now, many women can get better simply through that alone, but the problems where there are, it can be quite hard to identify the right muscles and to actually feel that you’re doing the cadence correctly. Um, secondly, it takes a lot of time and it takes a lot of perseverance and actually try to get yourself to do them regularly.
It’s just something that you tend to sort of forget it. So I think my, my take home message really would be if you are a woman who struggles and suffers with stressing continents, even if it’s mild indicates that there’s some pelvic dysfunction there, and please if possible, get seen by a women’s health physiotherapist, because they will be able to assess you.
There’ll be able to look at the strength of your pelvic floor, give you exercises that you can do on your own, or they might suggest extra gadgets and things that can be used to help. And over the course of probably three to six months, you could well be cured if that’s the right word. And I think it’s actually never 80% of women who have the right go through a program and managed to do all that, the exercises and keep with the program and things can be, can be cured by, by that alone.
So rather than trying to DIY it, I would really to get an expert opinion. And you said a women’s health, physio therapist. Yeah. I’m curious. I would be curious to see, cause that’s not necessarily a gynecologist. No, no, it’s not. Um, and that they work closely with gynecologists and it may be your gynecologist.
They might suggest you see a women’s health visit therapist, but certainly here, and I’m sure you are, you can directly make an appointment as you would go to a physio. And I think you call them something a little bit different. Isn’t it? Busier therapist. Yes. But physical therapy is ultimately what, what you’re talking about.
I mean, it’s so what I want listeners to take away from that is you may not know of a women’s health physiotherapist. Use that verbiage, use that language at your gynecologist appointment and say, can you give me a referral to a women’s health, physio therapist, or physical therapy for pelvic floor strengthening, but that you’re directed to the right, or you could Google that to potential.
Yeah, in your area, start squeezing straight away. I’m started to get yourself on a little program and things, but I would, I would say if you have the ability to do that, it’s much better because they can also look for other things like the pelvic floor could be weak if you have weak glutes or if you have some muscle imbalances and things.
So rather than just simply looking at the pelvic floor, they’d be looking at you as a whole to see why is it happening? It might be related to childbirth. It might be related to, um, things that you suffered during delivery of, of a baby. But it’s not just about women. Who’ve been through childbirth. Any women can get it.
It’s more common. If you’re overweight, it’s more common. If you have a chronic cough or you have chronic constipation, long-term constipation, all of these things can be a factor. So it’s, it’s really, yeah. It’s one of my hot topics because I think it’s one of the, that would get helpful and the help is there.
Yeah. And it’s so disabling. I mean, it really is, like you said, it, it really inhibit so many times. Activities that, you know, a woman might otherwise want to engage in. And what about men? Do you hear this often? I know you primarily work with women, but I mean, I would think men could experience this to some degree too.
Maybe if they’ve had prostate problems absolutely. Yet. So what can, what can men do? Um, again, I would get, particularly with men, they count straight from their pelvic floor muscle exercises. Aren’t just for women. They’re for men too. But again, because it is less common in men and it is often linked to prostate problems, things.
Again, I would, I would see, see your doctor to get some advice and information about it, definitely, but I’ve always constipation. What’s your weight? Stop smoking. All of those things contribute to stress and continents, perfect men and women seek help. There is, there is hope, 80%. That’s a great number. It’s ladies.
Make sure that you, you take a look at that. Let’s talk about food and drink. I’m always up for talking about food and drink. I’m hungry as I speak, but what is the best diet for runners? And then let’s talk about water, how much water to be drinking. And we’ll talk a little bit about the hydration test. I love this.
This is such a great, great idea, but let’s just first talk generally about diet for runners. So I wanted to put, I wanted to put this in the book because I think runners will look for it. And, but at the same time, I am not a nutritionist or dietician. I have no expertise in that area above what you’d expect adopted to, to know about diet, which generally isn’t very much, this is why I love her.
Very few doctors will even recognize they’re not an expert at everything. This is why we get along so well, but wanted to put it in there, but I want it to be honest and. And I know that you’ll read conflicting things about which diet is best for Jura and which does best for this. I mean, I, my, my take on it was the diet, which works for you is, is the right diet for a runner.
We’ve got to be mindful that it is putting stress on our body. And our body is doing lots of extra repairing and restoring and strengthening itself. As I mentioned with your muscles and things. So we need a healthy diet. We need a diet packed full of nutrients and vitamins and minerals to give our body the building blocks that it needs, but how you get those is very much up to you.
And I don’t really think it’s my position to tell you that you should be vegan. You should have low carb. You should, you know, you got to find something that works for your lifestyle, that you can, uh, for your bank balance for your family, that you can sustain. Um, that sits right with you environmentally as well.
So I don’t want to preach or, or judge, but I would just say generally diversity is important. Eating a rainbow. We see lots of different colored foods, making sure that you’re giving yourself enough energy, because if you get quite seriously into your running and you’re doing it regularly, your energy intake is going to need to go up.
And if you don’t increase your energy intake and your, and what we call energy deficiency, your body can run into problems and it starts to shop certain systems down and it can be really significantly. Bad fit for your health. So that that’s my kind of general sort of take on it. Enjoy your food, make sure you feel you’re running well snack before you run deplenish and have something after you run, eat lots of different types of food fresh where possible stay away from processed things, but enjoy it and, and see it as, uh, a positive, amen.
Food was meant to be enjoyed. The one general piece I will put in there as a fitness nutrition coach. The number one disparity that I see in my clients that would also certainly apply for anyone who is a runner is generally speaking. Uh, people are not consuming enough protein, and that can, especially based on what you were just suggesting too, with the need for increased energy requirements, carbs and fats are definitely very important.
That day in and day out. You want to make sure that you are consuming enough, lean protein, especially, and I have another podcast, all about whole food, nutrition and macronutrients, protein being one of those macronutrients. Take a listen to that. If you want a little bit more on the nutrition end of things, but be very conscious of your protein.
If you are like the majority of people, you’re probably under consuming lean protein, and that may help you as a runner as well. Let’s talk about, oh, go ahead. No, I was gonna say that’s particularly important for, um, I don’t wanna say older women because I’m nearly 50 and I kept myself in that, but we know that the oh no, no, no odor odor is relative.
You are young 50 years ago. Your body naturally loses muscle. As we get older about the age of 30 and you need protein to make muscle so particularly important for women around the time of the menopause and beyond post-menopause years as well. And men in that age bracket to, to increase your, your, your protein so that you can make muscle because that will help your writing.
But it’ll also just generally help to counteract sarcopenia, which this is natural muscle loss that we get as we get older. So good, good point with the protein. Yeah. And that’s perfect for clarifying too. And like I said, on the, on the, um, macro. Uh, podcast. I actually offer principles that one of which is protein examples, and for vegetarians or meat eaters, there’s a lot of ideas for healthy protein sources on that list, but maybe even more important than the protein.
Maybe I love my protein, but let’s talk about water. Speaking of under consuming something I’m as guilty of this as anyone. This is my third cup of coffee. And in full disclosure, I have not had any water yet today. All about being real. So there’s my confession for the day, but let’s talk about water. I’ve also not exercised yet today.
So that’s partly why I have no water. Yeah, well, I mean, our bodies are about 60% water, so it is, and our brains about no. 95, 70 5% water. So, you know, we, we, we need it to keep us healthy and like you, I’m, I’m guilty of not having enough water, but if you’re exercising, then your water requirements are definitely going to go up because you lose water through sweat and you lose it through respiration.
So when you’re, over-breathing, you’ll be, you’ll be losing water that way too. And running, you know, it’s a tough old workout, but you’re not always aware of it. So if you’re exercising outside, I certainly know when I run on the treadmill covered in sweat, but when you run outside, it evaporates off sometimes very quickly, especially in the hot weather.
So you’re not always really aware of it. So if something you don’t want to overdo it because drinking too much of just water can be harmful. Um, but it is something that it really helps you with your performance and the way you feel and your recovery. If you can make sure that you are adequately hydrated, And it’s a very individual thing, how much you need.
It depends on what’s going on in the rest of your day, what food you’ve eaten, because food contains fluids that contain water as well. So it is very individual. And I generally say be guided by first. I don’t think you need to drink before. You’re thirsty. Like you might see a lot of the time be guided by your first try to make, try to make it a habit so that we don’t go all day without having to drink having a drink, especially if you’ve got busy work and a busy job.
I remember as a junior doctor, like doing 13 hour shifts and helping a director and, you know, you pick the risk of kidney stones, but when it comes to running there, isn’t really kind of a clear formula because there are so many variables and each person has a different shape and size and weight and has different requirements, but a guidance, really, if you’re, if you’re.
You know, wanting to kind of really get technical about it. You could do what I suggested in the book, which is to weigh yourself naked. Before you run that, have a run and then wear yourself naked again. Would you come back and convert what you’ve lost into the equivalent of mils of water, but again, that’s not going to give you the whole picture, but it does just give you some idea.
As to whether you need to drink a liter or half a liter. And it’s a bit of fun really, rather than something very, very technical. So, because there are so many variables, but, but it gives you some sort of idea. If it’s something that you’re struggling with, otherwise I would say drink to thirst, but if you’re an endurance and endurance run, say you’re doing a marathon and there’s water stations, every so often you don’t necessarily have to drink at every water station.
And if you were to drink every water station and drink lots of water, you could put yourself at risk of a condition called hyponutremia where the sodium in the body is low. And it’s basically because you’ve diluted your blood with so much water, which can cause quite a lot of problems, potentially it can be fatal.
So on those longer runs rather than just water, think about having something that’s got some electrolyte. Whether it’s a sports drink or a little sachet that you hydration, Sasha, you tip into the water you’re having, or some runners. I know used salt tablets as well. So let’s say it’s difficult to give an absolute, but because we’re all so different, but that’s kind of a little bit of guidance.
Really. I love that. And I, I love the hydration test. So again, I have a podcast on drinking water. There’s a general calculation that I recommend for my clients. For those of you listening, I really, really simple, simple, simple guide like Dr. Juliet said, there’s so many variables, but is half of your body weight in water or ounces?
Um, just generally speaking throughout the day, I like the hydration test though, because, um, for those of you that struggle with cramping or muscle cramping, I think. It is very possible that drinking enough water may make a difference. Certainly things like potassium would also be important to eating bananas, being conscious of potassium, rich foods.
Um, but I have specifically talked to clients about struggles with cramping and when they started documenting their water intake and increasing it, they saw a direct correlation to the degree of cramping. And that’s why I love your hydration test because I think especially some of the men out there, you may not be getting nearly enough water for the amount that you are putting out for the amount that your body is losing.
And you may see quite an improvement in, in cramping. So the hydration test, I love that you guys, again, this book, you need to buy this. If you’re a runner and you want more of this. These are just bite-sized pieces from everything that’s in here, but the hydration test is in there too. Well. We’ve talked about all kinds of things.
We talked about peeing. Why not go to the other end of the spectrum? Um, you talk about the runner’s trot and I absolutely love, I love that phrase. Um, I can’t say I’ve, I’ve used that phrase specifically, but if we’re talking about it in terms, we can all understand, basically you start running and you instantly have to poop every time.
And this is a very real thing. There are certain people who this is a consistent problem for them, and it actually inhibits them from going on certain runs, if there are not toilets readily available. So let’s talk a little bit about runners, trot and what can we do about. Yeah, I think that the runners trucks, maybe that’s a British, British, I loved it.
I read it in your book and I laughed out loud. I was like, this is brilliant. This is what I’m always calling it from here on out runners, trot. I think the key to it is actually trying to work out what the cause is. And so certain extent it can, it can potentially be simply that the gut and the bowel doesn’t like being jiggled around in some people.
So it is, it is more sensitive, but I do know that in some people they have that when they’re a beginner, but they got kind of gets used to it and they trade it. And so for some people that just to be positive about it, it does get better as you get more trained in your bowel and your body gets more used to it.
So other than that, we don’t really, um, understand what the cause of it is. Certainly it’s more common in people who’ve already got some kind of bowel issue, like irritable bowel syndrome, where the bowel maybe is more central. A lot of it comes down to timing and what you’re eating and trying to make sure that you’ve given your body enough time to digest before you go for a run, making sure that what you have is easily digestible.
So it’s not too fibrous or too spicy, or sometimes people find that with, with certain foods, trigger it and, and a good way, again, lots of variables, but it’s just to keep a little food diary and just see, is there any pattern to what you’re eating when you’re eating and you experiencing that kind of sudden need to go to the toilet often with quite explosive diarrhea as well?
So food diaries can be really helpful with that warming up. Can sometimes help a little bit, again, just getting your body gradually used to what’s happening to go from nothing to suddenly running really, really fast. And you’ve already kind of gets shocked that can, can trigger the gut and it could also be.
That because your body is doing so much, all the muscles of a fired up, they’re getting loads and loads of blood pumping to them that the body might prioritize the muscles and prioritize sending the blood there at the expense of blood flow around the gut and the gut. Doesn’t really like not having as much blood as normal and it can get angry and therefore that can then sometimes cause you to suddenly need to go to the toilet.
I mean, there are lots of sort of theories and reasons for it, but I think when it comes to tackling it, it is making sure you’ve warm up. Check your nerves is running to say, if it’s a race, is there anything you can do to relax and distract yourself and, and keep calm, looking at food diary to see are there certain food stuffs that trigger it off?
And for some people. Yeah, it just happens. And, and it’s, it’s a real issue and I can’t pretend that a committee go away and everybody, those are certainly some of the things that you can, that you can do to try and overcome it. I don’t know if you’ve got any other tips that you, that you, uh, that you use. I think that’s excellent.
I mean, I would just throw in that if there are certain factors that, you know, consistently make you have a bowel movement, coffee being one of them, for some people, that’s a pretty consistent correlation. I’m stating something much more obvious and probably less helpful than what you just suggested. But you know, if coffee, generally speaking makes you have to go to the bathroom, don’t drink coffee right before you run again.
Obvious maybe, but yeah, it’s the food diary piece, like you just said, right. Coffees are stimulated. So it can’t do that on the other side. Coffee can be performance in health settings. Coffee is good for everything we recommend. I recommend coffee for everything in life. It cures all things. I have no research for that, but that’s actually not true.
There’s some really good research with coffee. Yes, yes. We maybe we’ll do a different podcast on coffee. Uh, one of the things that I loved in your book, and again, you buy this book, you can find this, this graph, you talked about shoe tying tips. I ran competitively for eight years and no one ever told me in that time, that the way that I tie my shoes could make a difference in symptoms that I felt that is really fascinating.
So pins and needles in your feet, your feet going numb, listers damaged toenails could be improved by high. How you tie your shoes. I don’t know if you want to talk about that at all. Yeah. I mean, shoe fit is, is so important and I think that. Really important. You remember, there’s all kinds of stuff like this in this book, you see this, would you guys need to buy this book?
Yeah. Is it blurry? I don’t even know, but listen, lacing up trainers. They call them trainers. Why you guys are so much cuter than we are everything that you say. I’m like, I talk like that.
Anyway. Lacing up. Yeah. Yeah. So your fish, if it’s important that your feet change, so don’t always assume that the sneaker is that what you’re saying though, is two weeks we would call them and yeah, in most parts of the country, it sneakers would be. So don’t assume that the sneaker that you had fitted five years ago, 10 years ago is still the best shoe for you.
So trying to get the right fit is important, but sometimes. Despite having a good, a good fit things do still go a little bit wrong. If you find your head as lifting up, if you find that you’re getting a lot of blisters and you want to sort of secure your foot more firmly, you can use the heel lock, which is also in the book, which is a, um, a knot which uses that extra hole on the sneaker that you might never have actually used before, or even really knew existed.
And just wondered what that little hole was there for, but things like. Um, blisters and also people just everyone’s feet are different and they’re different shape. And some people have a really high step and they find they get rubbing on the top of their foot. Some people have a bigger, big toe or a big toe that goes at different angle, and they want to take the pressure off that.
So simply by adjusting the lacing to remove pressure from those high pressure areas can help with blisters foot numbness, um, just sort of general discomfort. So worth having a little bit of a play. And actually, I mean, there’s pictures in the book there, but you can also have a look at some of the lacing techniques on like YouTube and things.
And that they’re crazy. You’re like, wow. They look pretty as well. Yeah. I truly had never, I mean, shoe fit for sure is an important thing. And you can maybe speak to this too. Generally speaking, you actually want your shoes just slightly tighter than looser as a runner. They will loosen up. You don’t want them too tight to clarify to your point, but.
Overly overly loose. Two is not ideal. You want a good fit is the bottom line. And it could, depending on the brand of shoe, um, could also fit differently. But for me, once I found a brand that I loved, I’ve been wearing the same brand, the same size, the same width for years and years, because I know it is just the right fit for me.
So sometimes like you said, it takes some playing around. Definitely getting that shoe fit. Yep. Yep. Definitely. And just say your feet, do you change, especially if your pregnancy, if it can change generally would say definitely go at least half, if not a full size, bigger than your normal shoe. And the only thing I would say is if you’re doing a shorter distance, if you have, if your feet, if your feet have taught, okay.
Talk to me about that. We might have been told different things or you might recommend something different size thing of saying. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So generally we would say if you’re, if you’re, if you’re in English sizes, if you’re at a five, then you want to look at at least a five and a half or a six. And some of my running shoes is that because of socks.
Cause you’re suggesting thicker socks. No. I think a lot of it is because of that. You want a bit of space for your feet when your foot hits the ground, your foot spreads out a little bit. So you get a little bit more extra wet, and if you’re running downhill, then your toes can move through to the front with your shoe and you can end up with black toenails.
So it isn’t that you just think you’re a little bit more space to expand when you put your foot on the ground with high-impact. Now, if you’re doing, if you’re wearing spikes or you’re doing a spread or shorter distance, then that’s not so much of an issue, but if you’re somebody who’s going to go further, bigger distances, particularly kind of marathon or ultra, then you’ll fix well, they fit your feet swell over that time needle, a bit of extra capacity in your shoe to kind of make it comfortable when, when your feet do swell up and not have them too tight.
Like you say, because you need to allow space for them, the swellings bicker a little bit. So it depends on how much of what type of running and what distance. That’s a great clarification. So if you’re running longer distances and I should clarify, my distances are not, I am not a marathoner. So that’s a really, I’m glad that you pointed that out.
Um, so maybe that will help a lot of you. If you’re running longer distances and having foot problems, maybe your shoes should be bigger and thicker socks, maybe better socks. It’s so important. We always focus on the shit. Things like blisters, um, and also space for your toes. There’s no point in having a lovely running shoes that are a perfect fit and then squishing your toes into really tight socks that, that aren’t breathable and restrict the movement.
And then you can end up with blisters that way. So, yeah, don’t skimp on the socks is a good tip. Yeah. Socks shoes. I’m curious. I don’t know how much crossover we have. Do you have a favorite running shoe company or brand that you love? I have some recommendations for us here in the states, but I don’t know how much crossover there is.
I’m curious. What do you mean. Probably the same things as you. Um, I, um, when I first, my first running shoe and I was very loyal to the brand for a long time was Saccone or Saccone. Um, but because I’m with, uh, working with 2 61 fearless, which is sponsored by Addie DAS and I’m a coach for them added our shoes as part of my coaching role.
And at first I was like, oh, I don’t think I want to change brands, but actually I’ve, I, I love them now. And the added boost to really comfy, but I have quite a few beers that I’ve listened, like he’s in there and I love innovate. I get, I don’t know if that’s a brand that you have, but they make amazing. Um, yeah, but probably all those, those big ones are fairly, fairly common in both our countries.
Yeah. Talk to me for sure is, uh, in my, I should just clarify too, in my. Um, competitive years running for those of you listening. These were the brands that were most highly recommended, um, in that sphere. And it would have been Saucony Brooks, new balance, and ACX, I personally fell in love with Asics.
That’s what I’ve worn for many, many years. Now. I know the kind that I like, and I pretty much buy the same one once a year, every year, actually right around this time, because I run the most over, uh, these coming months where it’s warmer for us and for a little tip for somebody breaking in running shoes.
Um, personally, I never ever recommend breaking in your running shoe with a run. I actually recommend wearing them around your house, wearing them for some cross training. You’re less likely to get blisters from a new shoe if you wear it in slightly and gradually, and then slowly crossover your sneakers.
In my experience, that’s been much more beneficial while you were in. New shoes, but so we’ve just listed tons of companies for you. She’s Nike Adidas, I’m throwing out four other ones Saccone in case anyone’s wondering another tip is to have two pairs of shoes. If you are somebody that runs every day is to have two pairs, just gives the sheet time to recover.
And also it can help prevent things like athlete’s foot and things. If you, if your shoes getting, getting wept, then you’ve got plenty of time for them to dry out properly. And, um, yeah, just another excuse to buy another really bad. And listen, if you’re a serious runner, this is not an area to save money on.
If you’re serious about running, then talk about saving your knees. The right sneakers are so important. Do not go for the cheapest pair that you can find. If you really are planning on putting your mileage in and on that note, how often do you recommend people buy new running shoes based on how much they’re running?
Yeah, it’s interesting. And I I’m a little bit skeptical about it because the general advice is that you get 3 50, 400 miles out of a pair of shoes, but don’t know what that is in kilometers before you need to change them. But. Where’s that come from, you know, is that right? The shoemakers, it depends on your size, your weight, or, and I’ve done five, 600 miles in some of my shoes and maybe even more.
And in some of them, I think really for me, it’s how they feel when my shoes are starting to wear out a little bit, I start to get a bit of pain in my hip. So when that comes, I’m like, oh, I haven’t many, I’ve had these shoes ages and on your sports watch, now you can log your, your shoe. And so it tells me, and I look at them and say, oh yeah, actually I’ve done 600 miles.
And these are probably, they’d probably be shot looking at the souls, looking at the, where, looking at the bottom and, uh, and how it looks is to get worn down. Are there any holes in them? And I think actually just how much cushioning you feel you’ve got and how the, she feels to you is more important than an absolute sort of number.
Yeah. And depending on how many miles that you’re putting in, it could be different for everybody, but, uh, I think that’s. Marker is if you’re feeling especially sore in your legs too, just generally feeling sore, despite the fact that you haven’t really increased your mileage or your pace, it may be time for a new pair of sneakers.
Um, I would say, go and get them done at a running, get them from a running shop where you can go on a treadmill and they can video you. And you’ve got someone who will be called gait analysis can look to make sure you’re getting the right pair because sometimes there are issues that are better than others.
There are very technical running shoes and speaking to getting the right advice, I think is really important. And that’s a great, that’s a really great tip if you’re getting serious into running. And what she’s specifically talking about your gait analysis is whether you have the tendency to, to run on the inside of the souls of your feet, or like the outsides of the souls of your feet, depending on what is getting more.
Um, pressure. Really, everyone runs slightly differently. Shoes can make a difference, whether they’re padded more on the outside, the inside, maybe you need an orthotic, something you slip into your shoe. If one leg is slightly longer than another, that’s how I ended up with a torn, um, quad in, when I ran in high school, I didn’t realize one leg was slightly longer.
So ever since then I wear an orthotic so that it elevates my left leg just slightly so that my hips are even, yeah. Yeah. Let’s okay. Let’s end with this one, because this is one that I think everyone who has ever run in any way, shape or form has experienced. Let’s talk about side stitches.
What do we do to get rid of side stitches or prevent. Yeah. And again, it’s one of those what’s causing it because you can only really make something better if you know what’s causing it. And we don’t actually really know. I was just going to say, wait, tell me what causes I’m so curious. There was so many theories.
Is it a muscular spasm? Is it a lack of blood flow to the diaphragm that sits right around there? Uh, lots of there is. We don’t honestly really know, but again, like I said, with the runners trots, it is something that happens much more frequently when you’re a beginner. So as you get better and you get fitter and you get more able to exercise and feel less, um, kind of exhausted by it, you will find that stitches get a lot better, but they might come back if certain things happen.
So if you’re pushing yourself harder or faster than normal, so you’re on a run, but you’re going at a greater speed or you’re going further than you normally would. You can quite easily get a stitch. And that that’s something that happens to me a lot. I’ll know whether I’m really pushing it. If I, if I, if I get a stitch.
Similarly, it can be due to you, your diets. It’s quite obvious. Isn’t it. If you eat and run straight afterwards, you can get a digested, but you can also be more likely to get a side session. These usually are one side of your body tends to be more commonly on the right. And they tend to be quite, they can feel different, but they’re sharp.
They’re really painful. Like you, if something stitches are actually homeless, how can something that hurts so much, it feels like I might need to have some kind of major abdominal surgery or something might burst actually be completely horrible. Um, but again, looking at when you eat, making sure you leave enough time, making sure that you’re, uh, hydrated as well, and that you’re warmed up those kinds of things.
They’re not a, definitely a panacea to get rid of all stitches, but they are. You’re more or less likely to happen if you, if you’ve taken care of those things. And if you’ve actually got one, when you’re running at you, you may have to stop because they can be very, very painful, but there are a few things you can try.
One of them is to actually stretch out where the stitches. So if the stitches on your rights, you can keep running, but you can try putting your right hand on your head and leaning your body over to the left, to sort of stretch out that area. Similarly, you can try leaning forward and touching your toes that can help when you come back up and you can try different things with your breath and you can try exhaling kind of quite forcefully to see if that helps, or you can try and time it.
And now this has never really worked for me, but there are lots of people that say, if you can tie it in, I’m hope I’m getting this right. I might need to look it up in my own book, but if you time your exhale to go with the foot that got the side of the stitch on it. So if your stitches on the right time, your exhale to go with.
The right fit in the ground. I hope that’s right. And then that can, then that can help as well, but generally calming down your breathing, slowing down a little bit, just take a bit of time for things to, to adjust, take it a little bit easier and they will go, you, you can just run through them if you’ve got real grit, but they will go and they’re not harmful.
They’re just an absolute pain. I, to your point, it does kind of depend on the initial cause of the side stitch. So what I’m about to share, I think if it’s food related, I don’t know how much this will help, but one thing that I’ve done for years and was taught, um, when I ran now, again, to be clear when I was running a 400 a lap around the track, this there’s no time to clear a side stitch you just push through, but in training or running on longer on longer runs and you get that side stitch, um, I was taught to breathe slowly in your nose, a really, really long, deep breath.
And while you are breathing in through your nose with your mouth closed, You you, um, expand your stomach. It takes a little bit of thought, but basically while you’re breathing in, you’re almost pushing your stomach out. So, um, it’s uh, and as you’re doing it, you’re trying to think about actually expanding your stomach almost as a singer.
You’re taught to use your diaphragm when you should be using your stomach, not, not your, uh, chest. So it’s a similar idea. And then you very slowly breathe the air out through your pursed lips. So it’s anything you really slowly blow it out while you’re running. I do find a lot of success with this, but you have to be very conscious of make kind of like what you’re saying with the stepping and the exhaling.
Um, I do find it very helpful, but again, depending on the initial root cause of the side, stitch, it may not, it may not help. You may just need to stop or run to the bathroom or whatever the case may be, but. I was taught that. And I do find a lot of success with that, depending on, on the scenario. Are there any other questions that you can think of that you want to throw out your expertise?
Again? You guys, this is truly just the tip of the iceberg in this book. There are things in here that you may have never even thought about health questions that you’re like, oh, that’s a great question. So we’re only touching the very top of it. You definitely need to buy this, but is there anything else Juliet you can think of that you want to throw out there and then certainly tell us where we can find you for so much more running inspiration.
Um, I don’t think I want to add to it really, just to say that I remember being a new runner and despite being a medic, not having the answers to these questions. And that’s why I really wanted to, to write it, to find out some of the answers and to help people who were in that position that I was in. But equally as I’ve gone through my running journey, even when I’m running now, there are still things that pop up all the time that I just think, oh, I don’t know people saying things like, can I run after I’ve just given donated blood?
And can I run straight after I’ve had a cervical pap smear, pap test and just things you think, oh, hang on a minute. So I really hope that I’ve created something sort of useful. Um, I do blog about lots of these topics as well, and I’m always really keen to have conversations and engage with runners and things.
So please come and say hello. And the easiest way is just to go to my website, which is Dr. Juliet mutton.com. And all my social handles are on there. My blogs on there and the stuff about the book and various things. So please, yeah. Come and talk running cause I could talk all day so we could as well. I know you and I could, we could chat about so many things.
I think. Um, and all of these sources, of course, as always, we’ll be on the show notes on my blog@hammersandhugs.com, including the link to her book that you can buy right from right from the blog post or the show notes. It is always an honor chatting with you. I maybe one of these days we can actually meet in person.
I need every excuse I can get to a fly across the pond. Cause I’m British at heart. My listeners have heard me say that so many times. Yeah. Well you’re very welcome. Let me know when you’re coming this way desperately. Well, and same here. Same here. If you’re ever on the east coast over here, love to have you.