OK, so there’s no way you can improve your running fitness in the next 24 hours. But that doesn’t mean you can’t upgrade your performance. Here are just three ideas – and they’re all legal!
Grin and bear it
Kipchoge was on to something when he flashed the odd smile on his way around the Monza race track during his sub-two-hour marathon attempt last year. A recent study at Ulster University found that smiling during hard exercise improves running economy (a measure of efficiency). Runners were instructed to either smile or frown while they performed four hard six-minute runs on a treadmill. The results showed that smiling improved their running economy by 2.8 per cent compared to frowning, and by 2.2 per cent compared to a ‘control’ condition, in which facial expression was neutral. Get that happy face ready…
Full of beans
You’ve heard it before (and there is research to suggest that not everyone benefits) but a study at the University of Ballarat in Australia found that a pre-run caffeine dose (5mg per kg of each athlete’s body weight) elicited a small but significant improvement in 5km run time while a review from the University of Georgia reported that the average improvement in ‘time to completion’ trials (which mimic real-life racing better than ‘time to exhaustion’ trials) was 3.1%, with doses ranging from ranging from 3-8mg/kg.
Unlike with nitrates (aka beetroot juice), the effect was seen in both recreational and well-trained runners. For best results, studies suggest that your caffeine hit needs to be taken around an hour before your workout (which, conveniently, means you’ll have time to visit the loo after the caffeine has exerted its effect on your bowels!).
Energy gels and caffeine pills – or coffee? It doesn’t much matter, though the former allow you to keep tabs on exactly how much caffeine you are consuming.
Lighten up
Leave those trusty cushioned trainers at home and step into a lightweight racing flat. Shoe weight really does make a difference. In a clever study at the University of Colorado, subjects performed three 3000m trials wearing Nike racing flats; but unbeknownst to them, the 200g shoes had tiny lead beads sewn into them for two of the trials, adding 100g and 300g respectively. The results showed that each 100g of additional weight slowed the runners down by 0.78%. What does that mean in real terms? Well, for someone running the 3000m in 11 minutes 23 seconds (the time predicted for a runner who can do 5K in 20 minutes flat) this would equate to slowing by 5.3 seconds for each 100g of additional weight. This is an instance where less really is more…
Running Ink 
Enjoying reading why we are asked to do such things at Rye Runners. This answers that and more.
Keep them coming. Thanks
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Those ‘smiling strides’ we do make sense after all, eh?! It’s hard to remember, especially when you’re working at your max in the middle of a race but smiling creates a relaxation response which reduces energy-wasting tension.
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How very interesting! That all makes perfect sense! Definitely need caffeine before a run! I had a hunch smiling would also improve performance. I’m reading a book at the moment called the endorphin effect, which describes how we can trigger endorphins at will- great for pain management as endorphins are chemically similar to opium and morphine, without the side effects!
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Thanks Lesley, that sounds interesting. One of the findings about endorphins (done with rowers at Oxford University) is that their release is actually magnified when you are exercising in a group, rather than singly. It’s one of the reasons why we can do stuff like level 4 efforts and hill reps much easier when we’re doing a group run. Our suffering is mitigated by the endorphins (as well as social support, of course!).
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