Author

Stephen Morrison

Feet for Life – Bow down to the Podiatrist

I had seen a physiotherapist and an osteopath; I had consulted my personal trainers (yep, I have two) and I had even spoken to fellow runners, but after 10 months and endless numbers of leg raises and squats and even some sessions with the Core Momentum Trainer (that deserves a post of its own) and a stint in barefoot shoes I was still no closer to putting on a pair of running shoes in earnest.

So, when the College of Podiatry suggested that I should see a podiatrist, my only thought was that it might make for another nice Feet For Life post.

I would never have guessed that six days later, I would be out running 5km.

I was referred to Podiatrist Mandy Abbott (now forever known as Magic Mandy) at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and right up until I entered the clinic, I wasn’t completely sure what help a podiatrist would be, although she certainly helped me with my obligatory selfie!

Feet for after Life

Sure, I do possess typical runner’s feet and I could benefit with having some hard skin removed, but just how would a podiatrist help me to run again or even walk without pain again?

Well, I soon learned that in addition to being a lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University, Mandy Abbott also specialises in biomechanics and she offered to review my gait and examine my feet, ankles and knees.

This wasn’t like the standard treadmill gait analysis found in your average running shop. Mandy checked my range of motion in my ankles before asking me to walk up and down the clinic. After what felt like about 300 laps, she told me to stop.

She had seen enough.

I had excess hard skin along the outsides of my feet and especially in the heel. The latter wasn’t a surprise, as I know that I am a heavy heel striker (when my foot lands, it lands heel first), but the explanation for the outer foot was more of a shock.

During my walk up and down the clinic I displayed signs that I have Genu Varum or bow legs as they are more commonly known. I walk on the outside of my feet (supination) and my my lower legs are inverted. This is yet another sign/symptom of osteoarthritis and I am close to finally accepting that I cannot continue living in denial. At some point my knees will require further investigation.

However, at the very least , I now have a more than viable explanation for my knee pain. Something that I have been searching for. With this knowledge, I can move on.

So what does it all mean and why is it causing pain?

medialknee

Whenever I walk or run it is most likely that my tibia and femur are making contact which is increasing my knee degeneration and causing the associated pain. I am also possibly stretching the lateral ligaments and this might explain my reluctance to attempt any movements that involve bending or twisting my knee.

Training sessions with Scott Devenney (using the HUB and the CMT) prove that I can perform lunges and that I can apply load to me knee. I will continue to train and I will keep strengthening my body and lowering my body fat. This will all help me move better and without unplaced fear. I will not lunge into anything too quickly, but I will lunge.

As as well as an explanation for my mobility issues, Mandy also recommended and provided me with an orthosis for my shoes. It has a lateral wedge that will enable me to walk with less pronation with the force of each landing being absorbed more centrally thus increasing knee joint stability. It will also help with my knee alignment and increase the space between my tibia and femur which should help ease my symptoms and reduce the pain.

The thin edge of the wedge

This a temporary orthosis that Mandy fabricated in a matter of minutes and should it continue to work, I will look into getting a more long term orthosis produced. I don’t particularly want to wear an orthosis for the rest of my life, but it is much more preferable than walking in pain and not being able to run again

Mandy provided me with something else too. Hope. Hope that I will run again and hope that my dream of being an Ironman isn’t over before it even starts.

Even after only a week of wearing the orthosis and making a conscious effort to walk that little bit more straight, the frequency and the intensity of the pain has decreased. It hasn’t gone completely, but it is no longer ever present and I don’t feel that it is restricting me as much as it has in the past.

I ran!!!!!

So much so, that when my girlfriend Teresa suggested that we go for a short run this week I agreed. Without hesitation. It wasn’t fast but it was pain free and even after 5km I felt that I could have kept going. However, taking small steps has always been my approach and 5km was far enough for my first run.

I’ll rest my knee and I will look forward to my Cancer Research Tough 10 event on November 6th for which I am an Ambassador. It will be my first (and possibly only) event of this year and although I will not be fast I will run and after 10 months out, I hope you all appreciate just how much this means to me. I’ve lost and given up a few things in the past year and I had begun to believe that I would never run again.

I will run!!!

It’s too soon to say that I’m back and I doubt that I’ll ever again fully consider myself as a runner, but I can and I will run. And I will be an Ironman.

And if that wasn’t good enough, Mandy provided me with an excuse to buy new running shoes. With my supination and bow legs, my current shoes are undoubtedly worn away on the outer edges and it is in my best interests to replace them (I’ll ignore the fact that I do already own several as yet unworn pairs). My first pair arrive on Wednesday.

When I partnered with the College of Podiatry to promote the Feet for Life campaign I never envisioned that it would be a podiatrist that would hold the key to my knee pain and to me running again. I simply wanted to show that our feet deserve more attention and more care. Now, I also want to show that Podiatry is about much more than treating athlete’s foot or removing corns…..although that will probably be the content of the next Feet for Life blog.

October 23, 2016 4 comments

Guest Blogs Running

How to Breathe When Running – Steven Bonthrone

written by Stephen Morrison

At the end of this month I will be attending an “It’s All About the Breath” seminar with my Triathlon “coach” Mark Russell. Breathing is something that I take for granted (don’t we all?), but deep down (in my lungs perhaps) I know that I can do it better.

So when running coach and Faster Master Trainer, Steve Bonthrone suggested a post on How to Breathe When Running, I didn’t waste a breath and immediately said yes.

IMG 0002 2 3

Steve Bonthrone is a Personal Trainer and Running Coach in Perth, Scotland. Steve first got into fitness in the late 90’s after a back problem prompted him to get fit and he did this by training for and running the London Marathon. Completing the marathon changed his life and inspired him to quit his job as a pizza chef and trained to become a Personal Trainer so that he could inspire others to go after their dreams just as he had done. He still runs marathons to this day and also coaches runners in his 0-5k and Run Faster groups. His motto is “Anything is possible if you can dream it, believe in it and willing to work hard to achieve it”.

A question that is often asked is “how should I breathe when I run?” Sounds crazy eh? In and out has been the tried and tested method used by humans for centuries so if it isn’t broken then why fix it? Joking aside, breathing is a big issue for many people when trying to run so if you’re reading this and find breathing difficult when you run, keep reading and I’ll hopefully help you solve the problem.

How do you breathe when you are running?

If breathing is an issue for you when you run then there’s a very good chance that you’re running too fast or to put it another way, the intensity is likely to be too high for you. If you’re trying to breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth when you run and the intensity of your run is high then breathing that way is going to be a bit of a challenge that will likely result in you having to stop. This can be very demotivating, especially if you’ve been inspired to run by watching friends run or hear of how others are buzzing after a run yet you feel like you’re struggling and a natural reaction could be to quit as running doesn’t seem to be for you.

What if there was a better way to do it? What if there was an easy way for you to be able to run and begin to love it just as you’ve seen lots of others do it?

There is…..slow down! You may be thinking that you run slow enough as it is and if you were to run any slower, you’d almost be walking. If that’s what it takes then that’s ok but I want you to know that you won’t always be there and you’ll progress much quicker.

I should say at this point that the majority of the population make the same mistake when they start running so you’re not alone. There are many reasons for this. First, much of what we read in articles and from other runners is about pace and distance but seldom about how the pace should feel. Secondly, most of us are used to going to fitness classes that are high intensity so the natural reaction when trying running as a form of exercise can be to replicate that intensity we’re used to however, that doesn’t always work very well.

It’s natural to think that when we go running that we should go from A to B in the quickest time but what if that strategy is actually holding us back rather than taking us forwards? Like many other things, when starting out, we should be looking to master the basics before trying to do what everyone else seems to be doing.

What should you be doing then?

Let’s be selfish here and let’s focus on you and how your pace feels when you run. The first step would be to feel comfortable when you run and your breathing should be relaxed enough to be able to hold down a conversation or if you’re running alone, be able to sing a line of a song between breaths. It’s up to you if you want to sing that line out loud or just in your head! The aim should be to build the distance and be able to run a distance always feeling you can keep on going. The feeling of being able to keep going at any time will also give you a lot more confidence in your run where maybe there was a feeling of a struggle before.

It’s important to remember that slowing down doesn’t mean that you are taking a backwards step. If anything, you are taking a sideways step in order to take a greater leap forwards. Slowing down a little bit means that the demands on your lungs won’t be as high and you’ll be able to run for longer before you feel tired. Would it help to know that Triathletes Alastair and Jonny Brownlee spend about 90% of their training at conversation pace? Even if said conversation would put many of us to sleep:

“We keep our motivation up by chatting all the time,” says Alistair. “Even when we’re running or cycling. We talk about football, ideas, what’s going on in the world. I’m very conservative, really. I believe in lower taxes and fewer rules. Sometimes we talk about that.”

What to do now?

On your next run, try paying more attention to feeling comfortable when you run, feel like it’s easy, that you can run for an indefinite period and see how that feels for you. It might take a bit of patience to get used to it and if you do it consistently, you will progress quickly and it won’t be long before you’re running further at a quicker pace than what you were doing previously where you felt it hard work.

Happy Running and Run Happy!

October 21, 2016 0 comment

Health Obesity

World Obesity Day & the Soft Drink Industry

written by Stephen Morrison

Today is World Obesity Day and by 2020, 3 in 5 of England’s most deprived boys will be overweight or obese.

It is a shame that World Obesity Day, much like yesterday’s World Mental Health Day, should even exist, but they both do provide an opportunity to share important messages that highlight the need for action.

The alarming new figures from the Obesity Health Alliance (OHA) above, released today on World Obesity Day, show a looming significant weight gap between the poorest and wealthiest primary-school aged boys living in England ( I see no reason why this would not be the case also in Scotland). Three in five (60%) of the most deprived boys aged 5-11 are predicted to be overweight or obese by 2020, compared to about one in six (16%) of boys in the most affluent group

According to the OHA, eating or drinking too much sugar is a key reason for consuming extra calories and is therefore a cause of obesity. Sugar currently makes up 13% of children’s daily calorie intake, while the official recommendation is no more than 5%. This is why the OHA fully supports the Government’s Soft Drinks Industry Levy, which is an important step to help make our children healthier. The alliance is also calling on food manufacturers to comply with the Government’s programme to reduce the sugar in food eaten often by children and wants to see loopholes closed to protect children from exposure to junk food marketing online and on TV.

As Robin Ireland, Chief Executive at Health Equalities Group and member of the Obesity Health Alliance, said:

From a young age, children are developing a taste for high sugar, salt and fatty foods that is difficult to break once established and as a nation, we all have a responsibility to help shape children’s diets. Sugary drink consumption levels tend to be highest among the most disadvantaged children who are hit hardest by obesity and tooth decay. The health gains from the soft drinks industry levy will be biggest for our most deprived children.

I have presented my view on health inequalities in my Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine Lay View, so these findings are unfortuanately of no real surprise to me.

However, what did surprise and stun me were tweets emanating last week from the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM).

@BJSMplus celebrated the donation of a recycling unit to the University of British Columbia by showering Cola Cola with praise and even promoted them as a partner in battling obesity.

That a publication and institution so dedicated to promoting Sports and Exercise Medicine should fail to recognise how inappropriate these tweets are and instead defend Coca Cola is both disheartening and disappointing. I count my two blogs for the BJSM amongst my greatest achievements and although this might bring an end to any further collaborations, I have to speak out.

The BJSM have to lead by example.

We all have to consider the support we give to businesses whose goal it is to sell more of the products that potentially cause us harm, regardless of the support they regularly provide to help encourage more of us to be active or to our athletes.

Last year the New York Times reported that, according to health experts, Coca Cola spend huge sums to:

deflect criticism about the role sugary drinks have played in the spread of obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

Coca Cola are by no means the enemy and they should be included as a stake holder in all discussions on sugar consumption. However, while organisations such as the British Association of Soft Drinks attack the Levy, we need to distance ourselves from them.

The University of British Columbia and the BJSM may have innocently shown their appreciation for the generous gift of a recycling unit, but we all have to consider the message that our associations send out as well as the actions we take

And we need to take action now!

Chris Askew, Chief Executive at diabetes UK, said:

Not taking action now will result in the NHS forking out monumental amounts of money for largely preventable conditions. This is why it’s so important to implement the Soft Drinks Industry Levy, manufacture healthier food, and close the loopholes of junk food marketing to children today, so our future health, workforce, and NHS can stand a chance tomorrow.

Our children deserve better. We, as adults, organisations and governments need to make their future health a priority.

The Soft Drink Levy is a policy that will hopefully directly help those that are most disadvantaged, but it is only one thing. If Coca Cola and the other soft drink manufacturers want to truly be considered as partners in the battle against obesity, then they need to show support for the Levy and work with it rather than against it. O

I hope that, in years to come, we don’t need to have a World Obesity Day, but for that to happen we need to take more action and we need to consider the alliances we have built and whether or not they are for the greater good.

Disclaimer. My fondness of Diet Coke is well documented and I am not suggesting that we ban soft drinks.

October 11, 2016 0 comment

Triathlon

Ironman 2018. Identify Your Dreams and Work Backwards

written by Stephen Morrison

“Identify your dreams and work backwards, using milestones to track and celebrate your progress. Progress doesn’t have to be becoming the best, but simply by becoming better. Better today, than you were yesterday and better tomorrow, than you are today.”

This is an excerpt from my Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine Lay View and it will guide me on my journey from Fatman to Ironman

These words were original spoken by Frank Dick OBE. As the President of the European Athletics Coaches Association and one the world’s top sport coaches, he knows a thing or two about training great athletes.

I am not nor never will be a great athlete, but my dream, as revealed in Man V Fat, is to be an Ironman, even if it does take me the full 16hrs and 10 minutes allowed (although I do hope to complete it a little faster) to complete it.

With the Kona Ironman 2016 World Championships happening as I type, it seems as good a time as any to lay down my plan for Ironman 2018.

Before anything else, I have to decide on an event. Ironman is a truly global event, but as I am fundraising for Cancer Research, I wanted to minimise costs, so I first looked for events in the UK.

Unfortunately, the UK options are Bolton and Wales and while I have nothing against either location, I am from Glasgow and the prospect of competing in the rain isn’t appealing. I may come across as a fair weather athlete, but my fellow Glaswegians (especially Travis) and anyone in Manchester and Cardiff will understand my desire to avoid the rain. So somewhere with some sun and warm water would be nice.

I am not expecting an invitation to Kona, anytime soon, and while a return to Noosa, Queensland in October 2018 would be wonderful, I have to look closer to home and Europe. In addition to warm water. I would like somewhere nice to celebrate and recover.

Everything points to the wonderful island of Mallorca in September 2018 as being my final destination.

The 26.2 mile run might even be pleasant…..ok, maybe not.

The run route is relatively flat (and lined with palm trees!!); the swim, in the Mediterranean is both seawater (i.e floaty) and relatively calm (and warm), while the cycle contains some amazing switchback roads and a wonderful backdrop.

Mallorca is a popular base for triathlon training and I might need to arrange a wee reconnaissance visit to the island and sample some cycling on these awesome roads.

What goes up, has to come down

With Ironman Mallorca normally held in late September, I have approximately two years to prepare. No, that doesn’t mean twenty months to procrastinate about my preparations and then four months of panicking about the lack of them, it means twenty-four months of discipline, determination and dedication.

The three “D’s” that help make so many East African runners so successful.

It isn’t their DNA, their diet or the altitude, it is their attitude that makes them winners and I have to adopt it.

The countdown to Mallorca starts now and I cannot lose focus. The past two weeks have seen my training stutter as I have been sitting an exam and caring for my mum. As I type this, I recognise the need to decide upon a plan and stick to it.

So having identified my dream, it is time to work backwards. I reckon that my milestones should be at least one Olympic Triathlon, a Sprint and possibly some Duathlons, Open Swimming and Cycling events

However, If I am honest, I don’t actually have any idea what it takes to prepare for a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile cycle and 26.2 mile run, especially as I am not the greatest swimmer or the most confident of cyclists. At the moment, I am not even a competent runner.

I’ve done some Internet searching and the general consensus is that two years should be enough time for me to prepare. However, I will seek support from the experts at Triathlon Scotland and from Ironmen (and women) such as Mark Russell and Team GB Athlete Anna Symms. Both have generously offered to guide me and help prepare a proper schedule. One that will prepare me for the greatest challenge of my life, but one which will also recognise that I have others roles and responsibilities that present their own challenges.

There will be no intense or special training for me, just a consistent approach to being better tomorrow, than I am today.

And regardless of my training and event schedule, there are some essential milestones that I need and want to achieve:

I want to lose at least five stones of fat. I am currently sitting at 250lbs and having been 180lbs in 2012, it is a good weight for me and hopefully I won’t look too ridiculous in a tri-suit.
I also want to build more muscle. Ironman is an endurance sport and I need to be both physically and mentally strong.
I need to learn to swim and swim well. Currently, the 2.4 mile swim is the most daunting aspect of the Ironman for me and it will possibly make me or break me.
I need to master the art of the transition and learn the rules of triathlon. I won’t be trying to beat the Brownlee Brothers, but I do not want to attract any unneeded time penalties.
I need to remember to book a place. Ironmen events are becoming even more and more popular and they sell out almost as quickly as they open.
I need to raise as much as possible for Cancer Research and everyone can contribute here at Stephen’s Ironman 2018 Challenge for Cancer Research.
Finally, I also want to raise more awareness of the links between obesity and cancer. Too many of us believe that we are fit and fat and fail to understand the real danger that carrying extra weight can bring. Hopefully my efforts will inspire more to follow their dreams.

So, Mallorca Ironman 2018 is the dream and there will be many milestones to achieve and many barriers to overcome. It will not be easy and it will not be something that I will take lightly. There is much to do and I hope that you will continue to follow my progress here and at Man V Fat.

And remember, anything is possible.

howmanymiles

October 9, 2016 5 comments

Obesity

The Race Is On. It is Time to go Faster

written by Stephen Morrison

It was the usual night before the Great Scottish Run weekend.

I had arranged (and photographed) my kit, set my alarm and, as usual, I could not sleep. The weeks leading up to this had seen me frantically trying to get event ready and if I was honest, I would have to be the first to admit that I hadn’t put in quite enough hours. The days leading up to it hadn’t see me in the greatest of health and my old doubts were resurfacing. I wasn’t fit enough. I wasn’t ready and I didn’t belong in a such a talented field.

At times, I am my harshest critic.

However, I am also a firm believer in the power of the occasion in bringing the best out in people and I would also be surrounded by friends.

So, come morning, I jumped out of bed and began my morning ritual of having breakfast, getting ready and gathering all of my paperwork before rushing out the door to catch the train to town. I had not been this anxious or excited about an event for years and it reminded of my very first Great Scottish Run Half Marathon.

However, unlike many of my friends, I was not preparing for the Great Scottish Run and the more observant of you will have noticed that my race bib, in the picture above, isn’t in fact a bib. Go on, have a closer look.

It was the cover of my Level 2 in Fitness Instructing manual.

For the event that I was about to participate in was no race. It was my Level 2 in Fitness Instructing assessment.

For too long, I have only been an obesity and inactivity adviser and activist. Sure, I have launched events and I have helped to change a few lives, but I dream of helping even more people. I want to provide the same support that people like Jen Wilson and Scott Devenney have provided me with. I want to help the overweight and obese lead healthier and happier lives. I don’t only want to inspire people, I want to directly support and motivate them.

I want to educate, encourage, enable and empower people using empathy and my experience of being morbidly obese and inactive.

I mentioned Jen and Scott for a reason. Not only are the exceptional personal trainers (PTs), they are genuinely passionate about helping others. They are also now friends. They and many of the PTs that I respect have all trained with a specific company.

That company is Faster Global and at the time when I started working with Great Run and the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine, I was also introduced to John Hardy who offered me an opportunity that I have taken three years to believe that I was ready for.

John Hardy recognised and respected my passion and my determination. He saw something in me. More importantly, he believed in me and he waited for me. Over the last three years, he has chipped away at my insecurities and he (and Scott) finally made me commit to realising my other dream and to attend the weekend assessment.

Now, I am a qualified Level 2 Gym Instructor, and by the end of the year, I will be a qualified Level 3 Personal Trainer. Then, in 2017, I will learn even more and become a member of John’s FTE team, where I will join over 130 of the finest Personal Trainers in the country.

I will then answer the question of Can Fat Men be Personal Trainers (although, I will obviously be well on the way to becoming an Ironman, by this time) and I will change lives. Many lives.

October 3, 2016 0 comment

Health Obesity

Energy Boosting Snacks for Work and Home

written by Stephen Morrison

One of the reasons for my weight gain of late is that I don’t eat enough.

Whoa…I hear you say, how can I, howmanymiles, gain weight by not eating enough? Am I some sort of freak of nature who defies the principle of calories in vs calories out?

Well, let me expand (much like my waist). Recently, I dropped some hours at work. Not to become a full-time blogger or even to allow me more gym time. It was to help me manage my caring responsibilities. I look forward each day to welcoming the boys home from school and unfortunately, I have also become accustomed to looking forward to my 3-4pm feeding hour. Which sometimes drifts on to 5pm and even 6pm as I make and taste dinner for the family.

Despite my best efforts, I am not going to bed earlier and I am certainly not getting up earlier in the morning. Each day, it is a mad scramble to get washed, dressed and out to work. No time for breakfast and no time to prepare lunch.

Not that I actually get one. I only work five hours a day and wait until I come home after 3pm to feast. So, to more accurately explain my weight gain, I should say that I don’t eat enough in the morning. I certainly make up for it later and then, when full, I often struggle to do a workout.

And with an Ironman (you did read my Man V Fat post, didn’t you?) to prepare for, I need to find ways to find time to eat in the morning and at lunch.

So, when the good folks at the meeting software provider GoToMeeting sent me their 15 Snacks to Boost Energy and Productivity Blog to read and share, I was instantly drawn to the information and the infographic it contained.

According to the author, Wendy MacAuliffe, part of the reason for my 3pm munchies is due to my circadian rhythm. She states that:

Our circadian rhythms (which influence our sleeping patterns) can also be responsible for creating the munchies. That’s why just as the afternoon slump hits, we go to make ourselves a cup of tea, and reach for the chocolate digestives!

It all starts to make sense. It isn’t that I am a glutton or have a really, really sweet tooth, it is because of that pesky circadian rhythm.

Listed, in the infographic, were 15 protein and fat packed energy boosting snacks that I could sit on my desk and tuck into while working. Not only, would they help me avoid snacking on unhealthier foods later, they would provide me with a much needed energy boost. Something that both my Ironman aspirations and my boss might appreciate.

Admittedly, some of them don’t excite me, but I have to admit, it has been too long since I last ate hummus ( I once lived on it while living on a Kibbutz)

Have a look at GoToMeeting’s suggested energy boosting snacks below and let me know if any of these end of on your desk . I would love to see tubs of nuts, bean and kale crisps replace the almost endless supply of cakes and biscuits in my workplace. And hey, you can still have chocolate, just the dark stuff.

This post was sponsored by GoToMeeting and for posting it, I was paid a fee. As part of my Ironman challenge is to raise awareness and funds for Cancer Research, I am donating the said fee (might need to get a tax adviser to advise on all my blog fee donations) to them

October 2, 2016 2 comments

Free Events Try-Athlete

Get Fit For Free with NeverStopGlasgow and The North Face

written by Stephen Morrison

Put your hands in the air, if you just don’t care.

Care too much about paying inflated fees to get fit that is! Just last week, a feature in the National expressed how wealth (or even a lack of it was) was a barrier to participating in sports and physical activity. When wages (if you are lucky to have one) aren’t increasing but the cost of everything else is, then it can be hard to justify spending £8.00 on a weekly class.

Thankfully, I have yet another one of my “get fit for free” posts to share with you.

Our good friends at The North Face on Buchanan Street (and nationwide) are following up on their free and popular NeverStopGlasgow trail runs with some NeverStopGlasgow fitness sessions.

Over the course of four weeks, you can attend any one (or all) of the Wednesday night NeverStopGlasgow training sessions that will help your prepare for the Great Scottish Outdoors. Or in my case, the Tough 10 Cancer Research event in Edinburgh (don’t forget to enter my free competition for free entries).

Whether you are a skier, climber, runner or Munro bagger, having sufficient strength and endurance to get you across the finish line (or on top of that peak) is vital. Each session will be tailored to provide you with the physical skills to climb any mountain , even if that mountain is more of a hill and you are just out with your family in the local park.

Come together to train and to have fun

And with only twelve weeks until Christmas (summer has officially gone), it might prepare you for climbing out of taxis in little black numbers or with sliding across dance floors in your smart suits. What will you train for?

NeverStopGlasgow is not only for elite Mountain Athletes. It is open to all and everyone participating will come away with increased fitness and hopefully increased confidence. In fact, if you attend all four weeks, starting this Wednesday at 6.15pm, you will come away with more than that.

The North Face will give everyone who attends four consecutive weeks a special gift from Mountain Athletics (a Thermoball jacket would be nice!), so don’t delay and get signed up for what promises to be fun, challenging and ultimately rewarding.

Just follow this link and sign up for free at a session near you. In addition to Glasgow, there will be events in Edinburgh, Newcastle. Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and London (obviously). As a blogger and physical activity activist, I often complain that brands don’t bring their events to Scotland. Can we show them that there is a demand and that Glasgow is NOT the sick man of Europe? NeverStopGlasgow

Thanks to Ben Read Photography for the pictures and to North Face for putting on these sessions. I have not been paid to promote this.

October 1, 2016 0 comment

Running

Tough 10, TrailFest & Rainbow Laces Competition

written by Stephen Morrison

Autumn is creeping upon us and it is one of the best times of year to pack in the pavements and to take your running off road. Trail running is becoming more and more popular with more and more events being launched to meet the demand and to showcase the wonderful spirit of the trail running community.

It is getting darker and colder, so I have decided to offer a free Trail Running themed competition for you all to enter and hopefully brighten up your day.

Maybe it was my trailblazing Shite Runners blog or my efforts in the Hoka Highland Fling Relay, but I am delighted to announce that I have been selected to be an Ambassador for one such event.

That event is Tough 10 and it is the latest charity run from Cancer Research and also the event that I hope to mark my return to running in.

It will have been 10 months without running and I cannot think of a more apt race to make my return in. It has been a Tough 10 months.

Tough 10 is a series of, you guessed it, 10 challenging but fun 10K races across the UK which range from simply Tough for our southern softies in Essex (sorry to my Essex family, I couldn’t resist) to the Toughest in Edinburgh (where I will of course be running). Every event is located in an iconic region of the country and they are designed to appeal to the rough runner is all of us

The Tough Ten events are, you guessed it, tough.

Competition Prize 1

The Tough 10 events have no obstacles, other then the terrain and your mental and physical strength, the odd chance of mud and some of the most stunning running routes that you are likely to encounter this autumn. The Tough 10 series kicks off this weekend in the Peak District before heading off London’s Epping Forest on the 23rd October and ending the 10 race series in the sumptuous surround of Margam Country Park in South Wales.

Only one event has sold out (well done Essex) and you can find and register for your closest Tough 10 event here. Why not recruit a team of Tough runners and make this challenge your introduction to trail running. At only £20.00 per entry it is also great value.

To celebrate my impending return to running, I am offering even greater value. For the cost of a comment, three of you have the opportunity to win entries to a Tough 10 event near you (or far from you, if you fancy exploring)

Competition Prize 2

And that’s not all!

On October 15th, Glasgow sees the return of the terrific TrailFest Trail Running Festival. Trail running legends and the trail running community come together to celebrate all that is great about running in the great outdoors.

Glasgow welcomes back the Trail Fest

Speakers such us as Debbie and Marco Consani (the JOINT creators of Marcothon-before I start another debate) are joined by the almost human James Stewart, who ran an incredible 160 miles in 24 hours, and many other inspiring runners, including my fellow Tough Ten Ambassador Lucja Leonard. You can listen to their tales or hit the trails with special events and coaching sessions.

Tickets for this all day event cost £45, but one person can win a free entry, while two more can win one of the special and limited edition #RunDirty Buffs (as modelled by the one and only Ryan Scott).

RunDirty but run warm with the Glasgow TrailFest Buff

Competition Prize 3

If the Tough Ten and Glasgow Trail Fest prizes are not enough, then allow me to put a little colour into your life. The colours of the rainbow, to be precise.

Sept 19-25 sees the launch of Stonewall Scotland’s Rainbow Laces campaign. A week when we can all show that running and sport are for everyone. Unfortunately, homophobia, biphobia and transphobia still rear their ugly heads in sports as well as in society and it is great to see running groups like the Glasgow Frontrunners and events such as the Jedburgh Three Peaks Ultramarathon offering inviting and friendly running environments for all.

Rainbow Laces. Sport for All

And as part of Rainbow Laces you can buy, you guessed it again, rainbow coloured laces to show your support. These can be bought here for the small sum of £2.99 but one lucky winner will win two pairs.

And be sure to snap a picture of you and your laces and post them on social media with #RainbowLaces

To win all of these fantastic prizes, Just enter below and follow the instructions Every entry will be entered into a draw to win one of these fantastic prizes. Due to the dates of all of the events and the campaigns, you will have up until Friday 7th October to enter. This will allow you to enter almost all but one of the Tough Ten events.

To enter this fantastic free giveaway, just follow the instructions in this Rafflecopter

There are three ways to enter

Tweet the campaign and then enter your tweet url in the box before confirming you have tweeted in the bottom right hand “I Twitted” box
Follow myself (@howmanymiles_ ) and CRUK on twitter and enter your twitter handle (i’ll follow back) and hit the “I follow”button.
Post the answer below and again hit that button on the bottom right of rafflecopter

All will earn you entries and the tweet can be done daily. It IS a bit complicated, but it makes selecting winners fairer and easier if I get lots and lots of entries. Plus it hopefully generates lots and lots of tweets about the Tough 10 events and #RainbowLaces.

Good luck with the competition and don’t forget to get out on those trails. A whole new world awaits and it beats pounding the streets.

September 20, 2016 11 comments

Health Physical Activity

National Fitness Day- What went wrong?

written by Stephen Morrison

Not a lot of people in Glasgow seem to know this, but Wednesday 7th September is/was National Fitness Day.

It was supposed to be a day to celebrate the benefits of being physically active, but also, more importantly, a day when we could encourage more people to move more, more of the time. It was a day to Move The Nation.

What we got instead was more self back patting, a trending hashtag, more confirmation bias and lots of preaching to the converted.

It trended on Twitter, but did that reach make a difference?

On National Fitness Day, it seemed that the already active were hashtagging their day’s activities with #NationalFitnessDay while the inactive presumably went on with their day none the wiser and certainly no more active than they were they day before.

And can we blame them? One National Fitness Day Challenge was to record 50,000 burpees. This is not an exercise that you motivate the inactive with. This is the type of challenge that frightens people and most likely makes them doubt their capabilities.

Is this how we get the inactive moving!?

If you are in London you might be reading this and wondering what I am on about? For you, National Fitness Day included events outside the Olympic Park, events with celebrities and Sports Ministers and events that went on all day. It looked exciting, it looked fun and it really looked like people were getting involved.

No expense spared in London

However, it is supposed to be National Fitness Day, not London Fitness Day and in Glasgow, you would never have known that it was even happening.

In Glasgow, I struggled to find anyone who knew what it was and I struggled to find ANY fitness operator giving it any serious attention.

Just look at the efforts that Pure Gym and the Gym Group went to, in order to entice people in and to share their free gym pass offer! Inside Pure Gym, there were no posters, no flyers and no events that I could see.

It was simply business as usual. With gym membership and attendance increasing, do the likes of Pure Gym and the Gym Group even see a need to invest time and money into National Fitness Day? The pictures below suggest not.

No expense spared

I also visited National Fitness day Sponsor, Argos, to see what activities and promotions they had. As the main sponsor and having read what they had planned, I was confident that they would be celebrating it with some style.

Oh, how wrong was I?

I saw a young cashier with a National Fitness Day t-shirt on and I asked him what was happening. He responded that he had turned up for work and had been given the top to wear. To his credit, he went searching for information and told me that there had been people in, but that they had left. They hadn’t left any flyers or posters and Argos were not advertising any offers, but at least someone had been there. It is however National Fitness Day, not National Fitness Hour.

Wide Open Spaces

Was Glasgow alone and were we just proving that despite our protestations, that we are the Sick Man of Europe?

According to Sean Blyth of World Gym Challenge, the answer is no. He organised and delivered a National Fitness Day event in his Argos Store in Kent and he struggled to engage any members of the public . He reported that while the staff in Argos were helpful, they were too busy to offer any real support.

People were shopping or on lunch from work. They had no desire to work out in Argos and had no real interest in National Fitness Day. This is the apathy and attitudes that we need to somehow break down.

We need to consider ways to engage with people and National Fitness Day, on paper at least, is a great idea. However, maybe the word fitness doesn’t quite fit. Is it possible that this is a word that the inactive recoil from and maybe we need to, dare I say it, consider A Different Approach ?

UKactive are to be applauded for attempting to make a difference. I believe in National Fitness Day and I genuinely hope that we can reflect on what worked well and what went wrong this year. In 2017, we can all work together, to make National Fitness Day better and bigger and help more people, move more, more often.

September 7, 2016 10 comments

Europe Physical Activity Travel

Escape The City: Queen Elizabeth Forest Park

written by Stephen Morrison

Go Ape have seemingly invited every blogger and their dog (now, that would be a blog) for a swinging time in their Aberfoyle location, set at the entrance to Queen Elizabeth Forest Park.

I’ve still to receive mine, but that didn’t stop us from heading off to Queen Elizabeth Forest Park to experience the Great Scottish Outdoors.

For the uninitiated, that also means experiencing the Great Scottish Weather.

The forecast wasn’t great, but we were keen to escape the house and the city and after some gentle persuasion (“we’re going out and that’s final”) the boys warmed up to the idea of going for a wee walk (regular readers might see a trend developing for whenever I use the phrase “wee walk”).

As we set off, one thing that wasn’t warming up, was the weather. It was a drookit day and after an hour’s drive to Aberfoyle from Glasgow, our spirits were dampened a little. The sky was grey, verging on black and the heavens seemed keen to open up on us.

But hey, we had driven for an hour and there was a park to explore. But first, there was a cafe to explore. I fed the parking meter its £3 for a full day’s parking and then moved on to feeding some others.

Teresa and the boys don’t function properly without food, so we sheltered in the Lodge Forest Visitor Centre, to gather our thoughts, some maps and a few provisions.

At £18 for three hot drinks, two soft drinks and three cakes, it wasn’t overly expensive and the boys seemed happy with their hot chocolates.

Suitably fed (and bribed) we all set off to explore Queen Elizabeth Forest Park

There are four recommended walks in the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park ranging from a gentle and accessible 1/2 mile route to a waterfall to 4 mile hikes up to viewpoints over the forests and land beyond. We decided to try and do at least two walks.

The waterfall walk was as easy as suggested and it is worth the lack of effort. The falls are pretty and photogenic while the boulders at its base are generally safe and fun for the kids to play on

We nearly didn’t go much further on this walk due to a discovery that stopped us in our tracks.

Teresa discovered that lying on a hammock was the most relaxing thing ever, while the boys discovered the joy of swinging around on said hammocks.

Set amongst the trees with the noise of the gurgling stream and the waterfall in the background, the swaying hammocks offered an opportunity to relax, empty my mind and empty my pockets as all my loose change fell onto the ground. This shattered the spell that the forest was putting me under and I managed to free myself from the enchanting comfort of the hammock.

We then set off and crossed a wee bridge. This brought us out to a three way junction, with no apparent means of choosing which way to go. Unless, of course, you count the map in my pocket, but who looks at them? We could hear people monkeying around at Go Ape to our left and made the reasonable decision to go right.

After about 15 minutes of walking we came to another junction and the sight of a path leading up into the forest was enough to pique our interest. Teresa consulted the map and we recognised that we had stumbled across the Lime Craig Circuit. According to the information sheet, it was very steep in places .

An understatement if I have ever read one.

This was a hard slog. More than once Teresa and I had to stop for breath and I know, from my regular checks on my Garmin, that my heart rate reached its peak as we tried to reach the peak of the hill we were on. Danny, our family mountain goat (note: he isn’t really a goat) tore up the hill, while wee Jack was responsible for some of the spikes in my heart rate. Every 30 secs he would make a pass at overtaking me and I’m sorry, but there is only one walk leader in the family. Just as he sprinted level. I would burst into my own sprint. Loaded with extra baggage (our provisions and my belly) I just about kept him at bay until deciding that I needed to let him win once.

Not because I am good step-dad, but because he was killing me and because Jack is as stubborn as a mule. Unless he is kept entertained or distracted, he realises that he is walking up a very big hill only to walk back down it again.

He is often apt to simply sit down when he has had enough

The walk through the pines, clouded in mist,and the heather, bracken and thistles that surrounded us on every side was postcard and poem pretty. For expats across the world, this is the Scotland they adore and the fact that there was virtually nobody else on the trail made it all the more tranquil. Even the occasional rain shower enhanced the tableau.

We could have walked all day in this, but after about 40 minutes we were faced with a decision.

Should we climb or should we retreat.

As a family, we like a challenge and after a careful consideration of the wet and slippery scree, we put our heads together and we decided that it would be a shame not to climb to the top and experience the vista that awaited us.

So off we set and it was tough. Ideally you want proper hiking shoes and even hiking poles for such a walk, but it can be completed without either. Even with the rain, it wasn’t too muddy, but we had to climb carefully and I almost lost my footing on a couple of occasions. This isn’t a walk for everyone but it was enjoyable and and there is always a sense of satisfaction from the thrill of reaching the top and reflecting on what you achieved

The top for us was only 1,009 feet high and to my pals who are Munro, Corbett and Graham baggers, this may seem like a small climb, but for us it was a fun and rewarding challenge. At the top you can see all the peaks and valleys around and it made for a pleasant spot to have our packed lunch.

Suitably rested and fed we headed down back towards the Information Centre on a slightly different and easier route. One that could be accessed my most and another example of us taking a right turn which turned out to be wrong. This was a gentle and peaceful descent. We were all in high spirits, despite the increasingly heavy rain, and we were all happy. There was no ruminating about busy schedules or homework and we all felt at peace.

Scotland is blessed with with stunning landscapes and in Forestry Commission parks, such as the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park, you can easily spend a day on trails and learn about the history of the land.

Inside the Lodge there is information on logging operations of old. We ended our day in Queen Elizabeth Forest Park learning about the LumberJills, an army of female loggers who helped Britain’s war effort during WW2 by taking on responsibility for providing much needed timber. At the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park, they are remembered and honoured for their contribution and it it is a worthwhile addition to any visit to this magical part of the country.

The Queen Elizabeth Forest Park is a one hour drive from Glasgow and once there you have the entire Trossachs National Park to explore. After a year of travelling extensively across the world, we are going to try and spend as many weekends walking and lunching in our own backyard.

What walks would you recommend for a family who enjoy quite but challenging walks within driving distance of Glasgow?

September 4, 2016 2 comments