Runner's Delight's refreshig April Running Playlist is out! There's something new, something old... definitely uplifting and energising - check it out!
Robin Schulz / Duke Dumont / ZHU / Pitbull/ Rihanna& Drake / Disclosure & Lorde / Brodka
poniedziałek, 18 kwietnia 2016
wtorek, 15 marca 2016
Run deep, run wild...and wear comfortable shoes - Runner's Delight Running Playlist for March 2016
A new list of 12 upbeat songs perfect for your 10Ks (55 minutes!)
Enjoy! :)
Artists: Lykke Li (Magician Remix); Grimes; Route 94; Paul Kalkbrenner; Calvin Harris; Trent Reznor; Maroon 5; Compact Disk Dummies
poniedziałek, 15 lutego 2016
Let's Go - best songs for running (February 2016)
From 'Let's Go' and 'Can't hold us' to 'I feel so close to you* right now' (*the finish line?) - this playlist is ideal for both short and long relationships with running ;)
niedziela, 16 sierpnia 2015
My terrible and wonderful year with Runner's Delight - burying the myth of happy running and entrepreneurship
It's been exactly a year now. This time a year ago, I was warming up before my first half-marathon-ever on the Isle of Wight. 2:23 hours of pure hilly hell later, I was unknowingly about to embark on what proved to be a whole new chapter in my life. Hilly as hell, long as a marathon.
I ate my weight in porridge that summer and I had a whale of time. Running was going well and everything was going well. I had a great job, friends, and not a care in the world.
I ate my weight in porridge that summer and I had a whale of time. Running was going well and everything was going well. I had a great job, friends, and not a care in the world.
Then on one of the sleepless, post-long-run nights I came up with the idea of making instant, but still 100% natural porridge for runners. We were going very creative with our porridge back then - not the usual way; we had it with honey and raisins, lemon curd and even... tomato concentrate (no, not all at once though!) It seemed like a great (and easy) idea to make a mark in the world (I was self-employed and really wanted to have my own business I could grow from zero to hero - and if it could be running-related, that would be all my dreams come true).
1. The very, very beginnings - August 2014
What seems like an eternity ago, I scribbled some recipes on a single sheet of paper one night and called it endearingly 'Runner's Delight'. It was a private joke, since my then runner-friend invented banana-and-peanut-butter porridge recipe (which has become the first of our flavours) and I laughed at how he has his own 'Runner's Delight' and a lightbulb went off in my head...I immediately started first taste trials (which were all absolutely awful)
September - October 2014
Marathon, another half and weeks of research
In the summer of 2014 everything revolved around my first marathon in Warsaw. After I finished it on the 28th of September (the time was rubbish, 5:02, but all I wanted then was to finish and not let my knee stop me) it was clear a rapid come-down was imminent. I tried to offset it by running another half in Gdansk to celebrate my 25th, but that was it. I approached designing flavours very dilligently and spent the next 6 or 8 (I can't remember) weeks scoring the internet for evidence that beetroots and sour cherries are the best combo ever for endurance athletes.
November - December 2014
First successful taste trials!
After weeks of researching and designing recipes, we (that is me and my business-partner, Adam - yes, he actually exists outside my head...) decided to put them to a test...which was, this time, rather successful. Rather, but not quite, as adding any supplements to the original recipes would invariably turn a Runner's Delight into a Runner's Nightmare. After writing the original recipes (in hand, on porridge-stained paper) immediately started searching for a private label company that will do all the hard work for us, while we sit back, relax and admire the fruits of our genious...
January - March 2015
The film, website, brand identity and failed crowdfunding campaigns
WE-WERE-SO-WRONG. First lessons learnt - the idea is impossible, and if possible, than probably not profitable enough to outsource at this point. We make up our minds not to give up and decide to run a crowdfunding campaign instead. Adam is apprehensive. We've done it once already (and raised a spectacular amount of 5 (five!) pounds) and it was a spectacular disaster. I maintain this time will be different. It wasn't. We still failed to work on the campaign and flopped like we did before. But this time, we spent a good bazilion of hours filming and editing the epic BEAT THE WALL movie (see the link
BEAT THE WALL - Runner's Delight film - role of a lifetime ). My artistic concept -as the title suggests - involved beating the proverbial 'wall' faced by long-distance runners, which in turn involved building one of cardboard boxes and brick-print wallpaper. After 14 hours of putting the boxes together, filling them with the contents of my desk for better grip, and painstaikingly wrapping them in the said wallpaper (which cost us a small fortune and required a 1,5 hour drive to the other end of the town) we already began to hate each other, but unbeknownst to us, the worst was yet to come...
The film itself was a bit of a nightmare - while the winter was certainly mild, we picked the worst day in the year to film - insanely cold and windy. I spent about 5 hours on 15-second runs in a hoodie, jumping into the trunk of my car, from which Karol, our tireless cameraman, was shooting the whole thing, with Adam behind the wheel. We were briefly joined by Ewa, who - as if braving the first trimester of her first pregnancy was not enough - was now casted to run into the pile of wallpaper-wrapped cardboard boxes...madness.
Watching myself run in the film was a horror in it's own right. I thought I must have clearly overindulged over Christmas. So bring on the most common New Year's resolution, bring on the high-protein, low-carb diet, which will damage my kidneys and two months later regale me to severe haematuria after my next half-marathon...
Meanwhile, we have been working hard on our website http://www.runnersdelight.eu/ (that is, mostly Adam has - I was just standing by criticising every minute detail), the visual identity of RD - logos, colours etc. (with endless fights over fifty shades of...beetroot) and the packaging
March 29th; Warsaw Half. Reunion
A bit apprehensive about my general state of health (still no connection made between how I felt and the bloody diet - well done me!), I went for the Warsaw marathon with my brand-new RD t-shirt and a bag full of porridge (rather than hope). I was about to meet the friend of mine who first inspired Runner's Delight, but doubted I'd ever bring the project to a successful completion. Well, another one bites the dust. We met in a small deserted cafe on Nowy Swiat and I handed him a small box with a few Runner's Delight packages that cost me a hell lot of time to make. He opened them with real astonishment and cracked a big smile. Win. The finish time (2:18) did not matter for me that much.
April 2015
The injury. London Marathon. Putting things into perspective.
Back in October, I got a special b-day present form a close friend - a race pack for the impending Lodz Marathon in my home city. Meanwhile, with everything on my plate and my private life and career coming to a little stall all the same time, my running went a bit downhill...not totally out of the window, but downhill. I had a conversation with an elderly man in the forest (I know how it sounds) I usually went to for a long run. He ran all the Lodz marathons and was about to run another one again. I told him how scared I was, as I was feeling totally unprepared. 'Just wing it' - he said. And I didn't. Days before the event, I pulled a tendon in my foot, which practically immobilized me for 6 weeks.
Instead of running a marathon, I went to watch one - the London Marathon 2015
I booked my and my tireless best mate's (Stefania's) tickets for London a month before and decided this would be our deadline to launch the Indiegogo campaign. We struggled madly in the run-up, up to the point that I almost missed my last train to Warsaw and Adam had to defect from a party to print the leaflets I wanted to hand out after the big event. We met on the train and then I realised the leaflets had a spelling mistake...in the company name. We were clearly off to a good start. The campaign was launched without Cava and even we did not believe it had a chance to succeed... but Runner's Delight was on its way anyway.
After London, I went to Portugal with Stefania (one of the best people on the planet) for a week to limp around and put things into perspective (perspective pictured)
May 2015
The false start
Since I was to start my summer job in Southampton soon, the days we could work together were counted. From now on, every weekend looked the same for us - working hard to make RD happen. We sent requests to send samples to all UK parkruns and got a positive response. The same with bloggers. And as it quickly turned out, we couldn't quite handle the demand...Finishing work at 4 a.m. on Saturday night became a standard. I remember the bank holidays, when we went to sleep at 2 a.m. packing parcels and got up at 8 a.m. to pack some more... we needed systems. Systems and strategy...
June 2015
Southampton
I cannot lie - I wanted this to end. I was happy to leave. We divided our duties and I left for Southampton. The first few weeks went on smoothly, ordering and sending ingredients, dealing with emails from out keen future customers ... and wallowing in mud... for charity (yes!)
July-August 2015
Ready to ship, hoping it's not another Titanic
Launching the venture in Southampton has a little irony to it - but I really wouldn't want this ship to sink. Last year was so ridiculously long ago we don't even I feel like I was a different person when I first started off. And I probably was. It has been the longest and most exhausting run in my life so far and bless me I did endurance running before foolishly embarking on this apparently innocuous but totally mad journey. Starting a business in an industry in which you have no background, no experience and no connections, is like running a marathon without training. In other words: don't do it. I did it and I haven't died (yet) but it's certainly hurt more than made me tick so far.
Having said that, I baked a little porridge cake today to celebrate Runner's Delight first birthday (and make you think I'm totally deranged, yes. And yes, that's supposed to be a candle on top. Please stop laughing now.) Apparently having a baby can make you more depressed than a divorce (I know I'm not allowed to use the porridge-baby analogy, Trevor, but it's my blog and I'll do what I want ;p ) - so it looks like we're gonna be just fine. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/08/11/the-most-depressing-statistic-imaginable-about-being-a-new-parent/
niedziela, 5 lipca 2015
6 *not so healthy* things you MUST eat before your race
Ok, so - what do we eat in the run up to the race day if - as we already know - eating our usual healthy diet is a *no no* on the day (and - to be on the safe side - 2-3 days before if you're taking part in a longer event - a marathon or a half)?
The to-do thing is plain, bland carbohydrates that have as little fibre and gluten as possible:
The to-do thing is plain, bland carbohydrates that have as little fibre and gluten as possible:
1) Rice or rice cakes
 |
| Plain white rice cake with a dash of cream cheese and strawberry compote...mmm, carbs! |
The beuty of plain white rice lies in its almost complete lack of nutrients rather than carbohydrates...100g of cooked rice provides 28 g of easily digestible carbs, with 0 g of fat, 0 g of fibre and 3 g of protein; it's also naturally gluten-free (although some cross-contamination may occur in factories that handle other grains).
You can have your rice with tomato sauce and basil or - if you like it sweet - with strawberry jam and a dash of cream cheese or apple jam and cinnamon. For a to-go option, choose rice cakes (you can also make a rice cake strawberry jam sandwich from them)
2. White bread
Oh hello carbs. If you prefer bread to rice and don't have gluten intolerance, go for it. Choose white, highly processed varieties (yes! Blasphemy no 1) to reduce the intake of fibre.
And - as you can see from the nutrition information label below - it's an unbeatable source of carbs, with 45.5 g per 100 g.
3. Dark chocolate
Consume moderate amounts of dark chocolate (preferably 70% cocoa) before the race and the flavonoids from dark cocoa should prevent you from *going* on the race day.
4. Bananas
The runners' staple food, banana is probably the only fruit that you can safely consume before a race...Interestingly, their nutritional value is pretty similar to that of rice, with 27 g of carbs and only 3 g of fibre per 118 g (a medium banana). At the same time, unlike grains, bananas do help you cover your DRI of vitamin C
5. Porridge*
*Well, porridge is probably the only *healthy choice* I've decided to include here. Even though it does have a lot of fibre, a small portion (50 g) made with water and e.g. a square or two dark chocolate and sliced banana is a perfect quick-fix for your pre-race breakfast. Porridge (if prepared with just a little water, thus thick rather than runny) has great water-binding properties and this alone can save you from a running to porta-loos.
6. Pasta
Well, but of course! This list could not be complete without pasta. It's so important. Pasta parties before races wouldn't be called pasta parties without it. Prepare your own the night before a race and eat with tomato sauce and basil (you can have a sprinkle of parmesan cheese on it, yes.) Don't come any close ready-made pasta dishes with lashings of mayo in it - it may contain viscious bacteria that are likely to upset your stomach and will sit there for hours making you feel heavy (the high fat content increases digestion times and reduces the GI of your pasta dish - which can be a good thing, but not before a race)
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| Pasta - yes, pasta salad - *NO*! |
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| My last pre-race breakfast... |
niedziela, 28 czerwca 2015
6 healthy things you should *NOT* eat before running this summer
I've heard somewhere 'the real courage is when you wash down prunes with sourmilk'. I think it was a stand-up comedian...but unless you want your next race to take a more melodramatic turn, you should steer clear of some 'healthy choices' in the run up (pun intended) to your next long run.
1) Fresh veggies & salads
- especially iceberg lettuce, mung bean sprouts, cucumbers, tomatos
Iceberg lettuce, cucumber and tomato = a portaloo disaster; the thin skin and loads of fibre and water are guaranteed to send you on a run...the last thing you want on a race. Plus, fresh salads are easily perishable and may contain bacteria that may cause more serious food poisoning.
2) Fruit (except bananas) - especially strawberries and raspberries
Fruit make and excellent source of fibre, which keeps you regular and which is precisely why they shouldn't make their way into your pre-race diet routine. This applies especially to seasonal fruit such as strawberries and raspberries that have lots of tiny sees which pass our GI tract undigested, sweeping everything out on their way.
3) Dried fruit
A real fibre-bomb. Even a handful of innocent dried fruit can already contain your DRI of fibre. If not convinced, just compare the fibre content in fresh and dried fruit below:
| FRUIT TYPE | FRESH | DRIED |
| Prunes | 1.6 | 16.1 |
| Apples | 2 | 10.3 |
| Apricots | 1.7 | 10.3 |
| Grapes / sultanas | 1.5 | 7 |
| Figs | 2.5 | 12.9 |
| Dates | No data | 8.7 |
4) Beans & Pulses
Fava beans, white and kidney beans, soy, lentils
A great source of fibre beloved by vegans, they can cause winds and flatulance which is surely *not* desireble on a long run...
5) Whole grains
Wholegrain bread and cereals are great, but due to their high fibre content and relatively low digestion time (lower GI), you'd better leave them for another day than the race day
(* RUNNER'S DELIGHT #BLACK Race Day porridge is ok !)
6) Dairy
- cow's milk and yoghurt
I love milk and I defo do not have milk intolerance...but I stay away from my favourite lattes the day before a longer run. Milk is a fairly biologically unstable product and it goes off quickly - you never know what your bacteria tolerance will be on any particular day. Plus, the bacteria in fermented milk products may additionally upset your stomach.
niedziela, 31 maja 2015
One for the ladies ... sex hormones and running
Well, I was blessed to have run a full marathon on 'those days' and didn't really mind; the real nightmare for me is the week before I start my period (if I have it, which is usually 'off-season', in the colder winter months, when my inner sloth cuts back the mileage - we'll come back to that.) I was often wandering why what comes so easy one week later seems like an impossible feat just a few days before... it didn't take long to find the answer. I am a woman, I have a menstrual cycle, and my performance / physical capacity in general is acutely affected by two sex hormones: oestrogen and progesterone.
Oestrogen rules the first half of your cycle and is your buddy. In the follicular phase, the increasing concentration of estrogen will:
- adjust your body temperature set-point down in your hypothalamus - that's why your body temperature drops during this phase and your body responds to the temperature outside quicker by switching on its cooling mechanism. As a result, you don't feel like your boiling as you may towards the end of the luteal phase;
- your body uses more fat as energy source - estrogen promotes and speeds up the use of fat as energy source, thus helping you spare your glycogen reserves, and increasing your endurance on long runs;
- your muscles build up strength more quickly - in one study, quadriceps femoris strength after a series of 12 repetitions every second day over the two phases was tested, and - surprise surprise - the strength gains were at 27.6 per cent during the follicular phase training vs only 10.5 per cent during the luteal phase
- your breathing activity goes down - and since we associate our breathing activity (how fast we get 'winded') with perceived effort, running in your mid-follicural phase will seem easier;
- you don't retain so much water - hence you are lighter and experience less swelling; your blood circulation is also more efficient then;
Progesterone is king during the luteal phase and this is the bad guy who gives you PMS, increases your apetite so that you consume roughly 12% more calories than during the follicular phase, sets your body temperature at a higher level, thus putting you at risk of overheating, ratchets up your ventilatory activity, thus making you feel more winded, and makes you use mainly carbs as your energy source, thus making it harder for you to burn fat and stay on track for a longer run.
Period holidays, anyone? Amenorrhea
I mean, honestly, who actually invented the menstrual cycle in the first place? If you were to choose, wouldn't you rather...get rid of it at all? So most of endurance athletes actually welcome secondary amenorrhea - the condition when you period magically disappears as you increase your mileage, and replace your adipose tissue with muscle (when your fat stores edge towards the dangerously low, erm, 15 %) - your body thinks you are starving and reacts by shutting off oestrogen production (it's clearly not the best time to have a baby!). This may sound good enough, but estrogen plays one more imprtant role in your body - it regulates calcium absorbtion in your bones. Hence, low oestrogen due to excessive training may increase your risk of stress fractures. Not exactly what you want!
One thing we don't really think about is how sex hormones and menstrual cycle affect our performance. And it does. Don't stop running in the run up or on your period, but be considerate to yourself - it doesn't mean you're a bad runner if you feel winded and demoralized on these days!
Sources:
http://ubermotherrunner.com/2013/04/10/womens-hormones-and-running-guest-post-by-jason-karp-ph-d/
http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/staying-healthy/30-things-every-woman-should-know-about-running/285.html
http://www.elitefts.com/education/training/women-running-into-trouble/
http://www.shutupandrun.net/2012/11/how-your-period-affects-running.html
http://www.active.com/running/Articles/8-Ways-Estrogen-and-Progesterone-Affect-Your-Running?page=2
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