Sport Focus: Running - An overview
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SPORT FOCUS: RUNNING - An overview
A sport that is becoming more and more popular, a basic physical activity that can become your main discipline when needed, an excellent starting point for achieving wellbeing, but also a personal challenge with the most varied goals. We're talking about running.
Like any other kind of sporting activity, running can be approached in different ways depending on each person's experience, to the point of becoming a fully fledged competitive discipline. However, the naturalness of the movement, combined with the very low cost and practicality of the equipment and conditions needed to practise it, makes this sport truly universal.
There are, however, many differences between beginners and seasoned runners, and the different level of experience leads to substantial differences in the approach to training and supplementation.
Beginners, perhaps driven by the search for general wellbeing or a healthy weight, or by a general need to get moving a bit, will necessarily start from the basics, training at least 3 times a week, beginning with slow, steady-pace endurance runs, without feeling excessive fatigue or exhaustion, and staying within a not-too-high intensity range for the whole duration of each run.
Heart rate is a good point of reference: during slow running it settles at around 65-70% of maximum, for at least 40 minutes of activity.
Later on, training can be adjusted to make it increasingly specific, extending the duration of runs to over an hour, varying speed within a single training session, and improving gradually and consistently over time, until you identify your first achievable performance goals: a personal challenge, a race with friends, a target distance among the races usually found on national and international running calendars.
Making gradual changes to your training plan is the key to improving performance without excessive overload. Increasing your weekly mileage by about 10% each week, with a recovery week every 2 or 3 weeks, is, for example, a good benchmark for monitoring the increase in training load without getting injured. The maximum number of kilometres always depends on your level of experience, your current physical condition and the distance you are preparing for.
Certainly, especially for beginners, the support that an appropriate eating plan gives to a specific training programme is undeniably helpful. Reaching a suitable weight makes a difference to how sustainable the movement is over the long term, especially in terms of joint and muscle overload, and it can also improve performance considerably: an estimated 3–5 seconds per km for every kg of weight lost.
As your experience grows, you can use different training methods during the week, in the right doses, such as fartlek or repetitions, to work at different speeds and try to improve your times over one or more distances. These sessions can be included every 2 or 3 days during the week, keeping a good balance between high-intensity days and recovery days, which can be used for slow runs or complete rest.
Food supplementation can also help runners a great deal, both as tangible support for our general wellbeing and for specific needs linked to training conditions or distances that require particular preparation. In fact, it is usually advisable to identify two different supplementation strategies: the first for beginners, which always applies to everyone, and which is based on the possibility, through macro- and micronutrients, of improving the response to the inflammatory states induced by activity and reaching a healthy weight. In this case, vitamin C, Vitamin D, Omega 3 and an adequate protein intake in the eating plan, which can be supported by protein powder or protein bars, are important, helping to build a sound weight-management strategy. The second strategy, on the other hand, is much more specific and aimed at seasoned runners who cover weekly distances of more than 70-80km for several weeks, or long distances in a single session, as with the very long runs done in preparation for marathons. In this second case, it will be necessary to take care to supplement an adequate amount of protein and/or amino acids, in particular BCAA, to maintain muscle and energy function, as well as to supplement simple and/or complex carbohydrates correctly in relation to the effort involved: in this case, maltodextrin powder, gels and similar products are widely used and usefulto provide energy for training sessions or competitions lasting at least an hour and a half.
For everyone, it is always worth highlighting the role of water and electrolyte supplementation. It may seem obvious, but taking electrolyte drinks to replace the amounts lost through sweating is vitally important for health. Drinking water alone, in fact, is not only ineffective but, in some situations, even counterproductive, as it can cause increasing dilution of the body's electrolytes not lost in sweat, in turn increasing the risks linked to their deficiency.
Visit our product catalogue and find the one best suited to your runs!
Watch the dedicated video on our YouTube channel.
A sport that is becoming more and more popular, a basic physical activity that can become your main discipline when needed, an excellent starting point for achieving wellbeing, but also a personal challenge with the most varied goals. We're talking about running.
Like any other kind of sporting activity, running can be approached in different ways depending on each person's experience, to the point of becoming a fully fledged competitive discipline. However, the naturalness of the movement, combined with the very low cost and practicality of the equipment and conditions needed to practise it, makes this sport truly universal.
There are, however, many differences between beginners and seasoned runners, and the different level of experience leads to substantial differences in the approach to training and supplementation.
Beginners, perhaps driven by the search for general wellbeing or a healthy weight, or by a general need to get moving a bit, will necessarily start from the basics, training at least 3 times a week, beginning with slow, steady-pace endurance runs, without feeling excessive fatigue or exhaustion, and staying within a not-too-high intensity range for the whole duration of each run.
Heart rate is a good point of reference: during slow running it settles at around 65-70% of maximum, for at least 40 minutes of activity.
Later on, training can be adjusted to make it increasingly specific, extending the duration of runs to over an hour, varying speed within a single training session, and improving gradually and consistently over time, until you identify your first achievable performance goals: a personal challenge, a race with friends, a target distance among the races usually found on national and international running calendars.
Making gradual changes to your training plan is the key to improving performance without excessive overload. Increasing your weekly mileage by about 10% each week, with a recovery week every 2 or 3 weeks, is, for example, a good benchmark for monitoring the increase in training load without getting injured. The maximum number of kilometres always depends on your level of experience, your current physical condition and the distance you are preparing for.
Certainly, especially for beginners, the support that an appropriate eating plan gives to a specific training programme is undeniably helpful. Reaching a suitable weight makes a difference to how sustainable the movement is over the long term, especially in terms of joint and muscle overload, and it can also improve performance considerably: an estimated 3–5 seconds per km for every kg of weight lost.
As your experience grows, you can use different training methods during the week, in the right doses, such as fartlek or repetitions, to work at different speeds and try to improve your times over one or more distances. These sessions can be included every 2 or 3 days during the week, keeping a good balance between high-intensity days and recovery days, which can be used for slow runs or complete rest.
Food supplementation can also help runners a great deal, both as tangible support for our general wellbeing and for specific needs linked to training conditions or distances that require particular preparation. In fact, it is usually advisable to identify two different supplementation strategies: the first for beginners, which always applies to everyone, and which is based on the possibility, through macro- and micronutrients, of improving the response to the inflammatory states induced by activity and reaching a healthy weight. In this case, vitamin C, Vitamin D, Omega 3 and an adequate protein intake in the eating plan, which can be supported by protein powder or protein bars, are important, helping to build a sound weight-management strategy. The second strategy, on the other hand, is much more specific and aimed at seasoned runners who cover weekly distances of more than 70-80km for several weeks, or long distances in a single session, as with the very long runs done in preparation for marathons. In this second case, it will be necessary to take care to supplement an adequate amount of protein and/or amino acids, in particular BCAA, to maintain muscle and energy function, as well as to supplement simple and/or complex carbohydrates correctly in relation to the effort involved: in this case, maltodextrin powder, gels and similar products are widely used and usefulto provide energy for training sessions or competitions lasting at least an hour and a half.
For everyone, it is always worth highlighting the role of water and electrolyte supplementation. It may seem obvious, but taking electrolyte drinks to replace the amounts lost through sweating is vitally important for health. Drinking water alone, in fact, is not only ineffective but, in some situations, even counterproductive, as it can cause increasing dilution of the body's electrolytes not lost in sweat, in turn increasing the risks linked to their deficiency.
Visit our product catalogue and find the one best suited to your runs!
Watch the dedicated video on our YouTube channel.
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