I had the opportunity of spending some time over Easter with NZ elite runners - Ruby Muir and then Kristian Day. Both are amazing young runners, full of talent. I took each of them for a quick run along the Eastern Walkway, my local training run. Kristian waited patiently for me at the top of one of the hills. While I caught her up, I had a bit of a light-bulb moment. Struggling up in her wake, made me realise how easy it is to make your run a bit more challenging, without having to go out of your way to find tougher terrain, or a longer window of time. Yep… wait for it…I’m talking about increasing your speed. This is especially appropriate for ‘fun’ runners like myself. People who rarely go over the half-marathon distance, so don’t need to be overly concerned about putting in the mileage in the way elite marathon runners do.

Not rocket science, I know, but something worth being reminded about. It’s so easy to chug round at the same old comfortable pace. Running with different people can really open your eyes to doing things differently. Both of these athletes are short in stature, and run with a high cadence. Such a high cadence, that I found myself slightly breathless just trying to talk while running on the flat, before we got to the climbs. They, on the other hand, weren’t even breathless after the climbs!

It was after chatting to another of my clients today (another great female trail runner) that it occurred to me why most people tend to work toward running further rather than running faster. Speed kills - or at least hurts. Sustaining a heart rate of 195bpm feels uncomfortable; know that queasy, struggling to breathe, weak and exhausted feeling (wow, I’m really selling it to you hey!). But, in order to get faster you have to go through some of that pain (or your age-based equivalent) at least for short bursts. However, the reward is great. After two days of speedier runs my run-home commute felt awesome (and was about 7 minutes quicker). No pain, no gain? At least in this case, it’s true.

I arrived at one of my favourite café’s this morning, after a great intense morning swim squad training session, and asked for some scrambled eggs … with salad instead of bread.

I did get a strange look, and then had the waitress come around and check that I did indeed say salad and not sourdough. After eating salad with my breakfast most days, for the past 2 years, I get that people find it a bit strange, but to me it seems like a logical and tasty option. Breakfast is the time of day we want to eat something fresh and juicy-right?

It got me thinking about how we tend to adopt habitual behavioural patterns. Many of them learned from our cultural setting, which influence what we do. Effectively these patterns play a huge role in our health over the long term.

By the same token as I reach for the salad every morning, I also think it’s normal to exercise for at least 45minutes most days. To me, there is nothing unusual or abnormal about physical training. What is pretty abnormal, for me, is wanting to sit still all day, and then get home and sit still some more.

Try giving your lifestyle some thought. Think about what habits you like, and which you’d like to change. If you feel there is room for some improvement then think about one good thing you’d like to add in…...maybe it’s more greens ? Start the day with them and before long that will be normal for you. Or perhaps it’s exercise? Make a decision to build it in to your day, and just start doing it.

In this article, http://www.adventure-journal.com/2012/04/the-list-9-reasons-why-you-shouldnt-ride-to-work/ we get a good insight into how we think in our normal daily lives about getting to and from work every day, isn’t it time we challenged our behavioural patterns?

For even more inspiration pop over to the Willis Street Physiotherapy blog www.willisstreetphysiotherapy.co.nz/blog and read about Nick’s 100 runs in 100 days, a challenge which he is using, in part, to help put a difficult year health-wise behind him. Or read some of Amy’s posts about starting to use daily Pilates, to help claw back some core strength, after 4 babies and 3 episodes of acute disc spasm.

I get that not everyone is in the position to wriggle their toes into their fives and stride out for an hour or two of coastal, sunshine, running therapy (as I talked about in my last post)… but everyone is capable of a little introspection. So, take a moment and think .. will it be salad for breakfast or hopping off the bus a stop early?

Last week was a little crazy – busy with work, busy with kids starting school, busy with tedius things (like car services) so I headed off for some running therapy.

On a picture perfect day in Wellington, it doesn't get much better than the road to Red Rocks. Waves crashing in the background, and the smell of fresh sea air, with the sun shining on my face. It makes me feel so endlessly grateful that I can (and love to)  run and exercise, and it’s a whole lot better for my liver than a good glass of single malt scotch.

After my run, I went along to the Western A Price foundation’s presentation with Sally Fallon. Sally is (in my opinion) the author of the most brilliant food bible ever – Nourishing Traditions. An excellent analysis of traditional foods – what they are, what is so special about them and why we should be eating them. These are all the things I already eat, and I always encourage my clients to eat, when they are in need of recovery.

A few tidbits are:

• Bone broths
• Fermented Vegies and fermented beverages such as kombucha
• Liver and other organ meats (for our iron and fat soluble vitamins A and D)
• Saturated fats – Lard, butter and coconut oil and why you shouldn’t be eating your protein foods without them.
• Fish, shellfish and oily fish
• Fermented cod liver oil or skate oil
• Raw and fermented dairy products
• If you eat grains, seeds, nuts or legumes you need to activate them with pre-soaking

If you're keen for more info then try and get a copy of the book or  check out our fantastic  naturopath's website www.nourish-ed.com 

As with anything, everyone has their own way of interpretting any food 'philosophy' and my take on healthy eating is this:

-          It should be accessible, delicious, nutrient dense foods and sustainably affordable

-          It’s not the same for every person, or for every life stage or every climate

-          Adapt your diet according to your energy needs and be aware that food changes the way you feel – as a vast generalisation: fats make you happy, sugar makes you manic and or depressed, protein on its own makes you feel invincible (and then a little psycho), and rice and bread make you feel lazy and chilled out. Everything has its place, its all about the balance and what you want to get your body and mind to do at any given point.

Last week marked the Tarawera Ultra Marathon - significant event on the Trail running calander, and an incredibly well organised event with some exceptional scenery and technical terrain.

I took part in an approx 23km leg of the relay event. Due to the technicality of the terrain it was quite a long run for me, around 3 hours (it probably would have helped me if I had checked my watch before starting out to have some idea of exactly the time, but it wasn’t what I was thinking about).

We had some great runners on our Team Vibram FiveFingers who got some fantastic results and made a point of having lots of fun.

For my part I had my regular race day breakfast at 5:30 am of scrambled eggs in butter, some carrots, rocket and a pear, followed by a glass of chia. What I didn’t really think about too much was the fact that I was running third and may have needed to eat again before midday to keep myself fueled for when I actually did have to run- but fortunately with a few bananas at the aid station before stage 3 I was able to manage without any fueling problems.

The actual run was awesome, although halfway through I did start to berate myself for not having done more strength training - squats and one-legged squats to help with the steps and technical descents - it would have made a world of difference.A little bit later in the run I was just berating myself for not training enough - period. :) My legs did ache for about the 1 hour it takes to get the lactic acid out of the system, hydration with water, watermelon and a newly discovered favourite- ginger beer helped me to get back to my energetic self within an hour.

I did underhydrate during the run, and I was still slightly dehydrated the following day. This was largely due to a complete lack of planning on my part - taking 2 bottles and remembering to fill them at the aid station as well as knowing where the aid stations were would have been an exceptional start instead of having one small bottle and not refilling it - (I was thinking about the other athletes) but fortunately I was fine and was still happily having fun through the run. I have to attribute this to the forgiving effect of drinking chia which along with stabilising blood sugar also provides some slow-release hydration while running. I can’t imaging not drinking it before an event.

Nothing like a bit of learning what hard work really is to boost my motivation to be a bit more prepared for the next event. I think it will be a Red Rocks xterra event here in wellington in midApril, definately Syridon territory.

I went for my first recovery run on Wednesday - about 6km with some road and some trail, and then kept up the momentum with a 6km road run - flat on Tuesday night, and a 4km energising trail run this morning, focusing on keeping hydrated with lots of broth based drinks/ meals and fresh water with lemon juice!