3 Tips That Have Helped Our Running

We wanted to share with you 3 helpful tips that have helped us...


1) The Royal Canadian Air force Exercise Plans for Physical Fitness

The most significant benefit from this program has been an overall increase in flexibility which has had a huge impact on how we feel when we run.

This exercise plan is old-school, from the 1950s. The program was started because Canadians-male and female, young and old-were in need of some form of regular, vigorous, physical activity. As more and more labor-saving devices were put into general use, the amount of physical effort expended by the average person was decreasing. No different than what we see today.

The research for the plan was first conducted at several Royal Canadian Air Force stations and in the later stages included sections of the civilian population.  The results of the research were two plans, the 5BX, a series of five exercises for men, and the XBX a series of 10 exercises for women. The idea is to work all your muscle groups in a short amount of time without the use of equipment making these plans easy for everyone to do.

5BX plan here and XBX plan here

2) Morton Stretch

During the Assault on Pisgah, a fellow runner reminded us of a stretch that we pretty much had forgotten about called the Morton Stretch. It is a stretch that Mike Morton did repeatedly during the 2012 World Championships where he set the American Record for 24 hours (172 miles).

It's a simple and quick stretch that moves multiple muscles through their natural range of motion. It does not act as a traditional stretch that holds a muscle at full extension which can lead to cramping. The Morton Stretch leaves the legs feeling refreshed.

Images from fellrnr.com

3) Danny Dreyer: What To Eat Before a Run

It seems like we both would have "bonking" issues fairly regularly during our morning runs. We always figured it must be caused by what ever we ate the night before, but after many changes to dinner menus, we could never quite figure out what we were doing wrong until we came across a video by Danny Dreyer, What To Eat Before a Run,

We learned from Danny that our problem wasn't caused by what we were eating the night before our run but by what we were eating the morning of our run (we would always have some sort of breakfast). Danny talks about on the morning of a shorter run, he rarely eats, and before longer runs/workouts, he will eat only a banana or dried fruit because these are easily and quickly digested. In short, Danny says, 'don't eat anything before a run that will still be in you when you're done. It doesn't do anything for your energy levels'. After adopting Danny's morning eating suggestion, or lack thereof, we have not had any problems with bonking.

Well there you have it, three things that we've been doing that have helped improve our running. If you are having problems in any of these areas, We hope this information helps you out as well.

Eve & Bart