CHAPTER 2

What kind of runner are you?

I often struggle with this question, because from my point of view, anyone who runs is a runner. The key thing here is about appreciating where you are in your journey and, most importantly, your relationship with running.

Running is personal and we all run for different reasons. Let's take me as an example. When I first started running, it really was just to get some space from home and mum life. It was an opportunity to connect with nature, my body and myself. I would run for twenty to forty minutes up to three times a week, depending on what life allowed. I built up really slowly and had been running for several years before I considered my first marathon, let alone the move into ultra distance. And let's not forget, I had been a super-active child, swimming six days a week for many years, dancing, and playing hockey and netball. Even after university, I continued to play hockey and joined a gym around the same time as I got my first job as a dietitian in London.

Over time, this has changed. I would now describe myself as an experienced runner and I have been running for over twenty years. I run around five times a week and I also ensure appropriate behaviours such as resistance training, sufficient fuelling and rest to prevent injury.

I would say I'm fairly competitive but definitely not professional. I tend to choose one or two main goals a year and follow a training plan that helps me to arrive at these goals as prepared as I can be. I started with road running, but I am most definitely a trail, mountain and fell runner now. However, I am also very aware and mindful that running is my hobby, and so training, while important to me, is not always a priority. There are also several months within the year where I don't follow a fixed plan and the only real outcome for my running is participation, social connection, mental health and my love of the great outdoors. However, in my experience, not everyone has a healthy relationship with running.

Running is big business at the moment. While road running has long been established, the number of people participating in trail, ultra-distance and extreme running challenges has risen exponentially in the last few years. While I welcome the growth in participation in running, I definitely have some concerns around those with little previous running or athletic experience moving straight into long-distance events. We have seen a huge rise in run-fluencers, some of whom get paid to create content to promote brands, races and events, but a lot of whom don't. One of the concerns here is that as content creation is their job, they are combining their training (and racing) hours with their work, leading to unrealistic ideals and expectations for those of us who are trying to fit training around a more traditional 9-5 job or even shift work.

While run-fluencers' motivation to document their running journey may be innocent, their lack of knowledge and qualifications does mean that their content is at times irresponsible. From sharing 'what I eat in a day' videos to giving details about specific runs and paces, this all feeds into the psyche of others and can cause real problems. Regardless of how big their following, remember that a lot of them will be providing information based on n=1 (a sample size of one - that is, their own experience), not scientific papers or, even more importantly, actually working in the field. While I'm all for individuals documenting their own progress, is this something that needs to be shared with everyone else?

This is why identifying where you are on your running journey really does matter, so that you can make appropriate choices about the next steps that are relevant to you, not because a run-fluencer you have chosen to follow is telling you what they are doing next.

I would go as far as questioning that individual's motivation for creating such a post - what are they getting out of it? Is it validation and adoration, or are they promoting something they need you to buy into?

The days are long gone when Instagram was just a place where people posted their holiday photos for family and friends. Now we use our social media accounts to promote our own personal brands. I include myself in this. In an ideal world, I would not be on social media, but I see Instagram as an opportunity to have an educational platform so that everyone can have access to my knowledge to a certain degree. I am incredibly mindful about how much personal information I put on there, and I never discuss specifics about my training or fuelling. I do of course provide nutritional content, but as much as possible, I keep it generic. And while social media platforms may not have any regulations about who can post what, the Health and Care Professions Council, which is the regulatory body for all allied health professionals in the UK, including dietitians (but not nutritionists), has very strict criteria and codes of conduct about what we can and can't say.

Easy, steady pace, 30-45 minutes

Can be on any terrain

Regular movement

Cardiovascular fitness

Social connection

Mental health

Body composition

Getting outdoors

Easy/steady runs but maybe starting to include 1 slightly longer run per week

Can be on any terrain

Maintaining fitness

Increasing endurance

Social connection

Mental health

Benefits of outdoors

Starting to think about joining a running club

Potentially entering a few races

Maybe starting to think about adding some resistance training to support the running

Starting to be mindful of fuelling, especially if adding longer runs

Mixture of runs - some easy, some faster tempo

Interval-type sessions

1 long run per week

Can be on any terrain

Maintaining fitness

Increasing endurance