Shoe Shopping
Here’s how to find the right shoe for you

Every spring and fall, major running shoe manufacturers release a bevy of new models, as well as updates to older ones, ranging from racing flats to motion-control shoes.  With such a wide array of choices, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, but with a few simple tips, you’ll have a much easier time wading through the vast selection.

1. Know thyself.  Before setting out shopping, it’s important to figure out what type of runner you are, so you’ll know what type of shoe you need. What distance are you training for? What’s your weekly mileage? Are you looking for a pair of trainers or something for race day? Are you a supinator, over-pronator or neutral-gait runner? Are you a heel, midfoot or forefoot striker? Do you have wide, flat feet or narrow feet with high arches? The answers to these and other questions will help narrow down your choices.
   
   
2. Go to a specialty running retailer.  Their expert advice is well worth the small premium they charge over a general sporting-goods store.  This is particularly important if you don’t know the answers to one or more questions from #1.  The staff at a specialty running retailer will be able to analyze your gait, help you figure out what your needs are as a runner, and point you towards a few choices that will fit your running style and your budget. 
   
   
3. Fit trumps all. You may be tempted to buy the shoe that looks cool, or has a colour scheme that you like, but the fit of the shoe should determine the winner.  The toe box should be roomy enough to wiggle all of your toes, and there should be a thumb’s width between the end of your toes and the shoe.  The upper should wrap around your foot securely without hot spots, and the heel cup should fit snugly without up-and-down slippage. Its best to go shoe shopping in the afternoon, since your feet will swell throughout the day, just as they would on your run.  Also bring the socks you run in and orthotics, if you use them, in order to get the most accurate fit. 

Hyponatremia

While most runners recognize the importance of staying well hydrated, many don’t know about the inverse issue of excess hydration.  When you sweat during exercise, you lose essential electrolytes. One of these electrolytes is sodium, which is crucial to maintaining blood pressure and proper functioning of both nerves and muscles.  When sodium levels in the bloodstream fall below normal, the resultant condition is known as hyponatremia.

Hyponatremia is not usually a concern for a healthy person at rest. However, during prolonged exertion such as a marathon, electrolyte loss from sweating can cause a drop in the concentration of sodium in the bloodstream. This drop can be exacerbated by drinking too much water during a long race, as many endurance athletes tend to do. The extra water without electrolytes throws sodium levels in the bloodstream further out of balance. This particular form of hyponatremia is known as water intoxication.  

Symptoms of hyponatremia include confusion, lethargy, nausea and muscle twitches, which may progress to seizures, and in severe cases can lead to coma and death.  Fortunately, there is an easy way to prevent hyponatremia: don’t overhydrate and take in sports drinks with the necessary electrolytes.

Fartlek Training

Swedish for speedplay, a fartlek is a run of variable pace, and is one of the easiest ways to incorporate speedwork into your training. Instead of a set interval workout on the track, fartleks are loosely structured and can be done on the road or trail.

Start off with 10 minutes of easy jogging. Once you’re warmed up, pick a landmark about 200 m away (or however far you want) and run towards it at a fast but controlled pace.  Once you reach your landmark, slow back to a comfortable pace, or jog until your breathing returns to normal and you’re ready to make another hard effort.  Repeat as many times as you feel like, then cool down with 10 minutes of easy running.

The strength of fartlek training is its adaptability. Do it in any manner you see fit.  You can do a series of 100 m sprints interspersed with recovery-pace running, or mix it up with a bunch of 600 m or 800 m sections at your 5K pace, or just simply sprint to the end of the block. Whatever you choose, you can’t go wrong with fartlek training.

Counting Calories
It’s not easy to get an accurate measurement of how many calories you’re burning while you run. Here are the options:

One of the most frequently asked statistics is how many calories we burn while running.  There are many online calculators that you can use to punch in weight, speed, duration of exercise and/or distance travelled, and they’ll spit out the calories burned.  These calculators all use standard formulae based on testing done on runners (usually elites), so depending how closely your physiology matches that of the test subjects, the results could range from being a good approximation to wildly off the mark.  A further complication is the fact that actual calories used will differ based on a whole host of factors not accounted for in the online calculators.   Factors such as wind, terrain and the economy of your running form will all affect the number of calories consumed during your run.

For a more precise calorie-counting method, you’ll need a heart rate monitor. It turns out that there is a fairly close correlation between energy expenditure and heart rate.  Adding the heart rate to the equation, though, still doesn’t tell the whole story, because you need to use a formula to estimate your Base Metabolic Rate (BMR), a measure of how much energy you burn at rest.  Depending on how close your actual BMR is to the theoretical model, this number can be as much as 20 per cent off.

The one way to accurately find out just how many calories you consume while exercising is to do a metabolic test at your local sports/rehab clinic.  In a metabolic test,  subjects perform a series of increasing efforts on a treadmill or exercise bike while breathing in to a tube. The breaths are then analysed for the amount of oxygen consumed and carbon dioxide produced, while an EKG machine monitors heart rate. From this, the rate at which your body actually consumes fuel and oxygen at various exercise intensities can be calculated.  The metabolic test can be expensive, but it’s often combined with VO2 max and lactate threshold testing for a complete physiological picture.